Blue 
Anchor 


Edwin  Bateman  Morris 


IS    IT    DEEP    ENOUGH    HERE    TO    DIVE? 


BLUE   ANCHOR 

INN 


BY 


EDWIN  BATEMAN  MORRIS 


COPY  EIGHT 
1912  BY 

THE  PENN 
PUBLISHING 
COMPANY 


jr 


Blue    Anchor    Inn 


To  My  Mother 


Illustrations 

PAGE 

"  Is  IT  DEEP  ENOUGH  HERE  TO  DIVE  ?  "  Frontispiece 
SHE  STOOD  IN  THE  DOORWAY  .  .  .  -55 
"  IT  SOUNDS  INTERESTING  "  .  .  .  .73 
«  You  MUST  TAKE  A  VERY  TINY  BITE  "  .  .159 
"  I'M  BUSY  TO-DAY  " 246 


Blue  Anchor  Inn. 


Blue  Anchor  Inn 


CHAPTER  I 

A  RICH  young  man  sauntered  unassumingly 
down  the  street.  He  was  carefully  and 
neatly  attired,  and  appeared  jovial  and  contented 
in  the  station  of  life  to  which  it  had  pleased 
Providence  to  call  him.  At  the  street  corner  he 
paused,  and  counted  his  entire  fortune. 

There  were  three  crumpled  bills,  some  loose 
silver  and  a  nickel — no  more.  It  was  the  fag- 
end  of  poverty,  judged  by  the  world's  standard. 
His  riches  consisted  only  of  buoyancy  and  light- 
ness of  heart. 

For  many  a  day  he  had  watched  his  small 
store  of  money  steadily  disappearing.  He  had 
economized  here,  pinched  there,  done  without 
on  all  sides,  fighting  every  inch  of  the  way  as 
the  balance  ebbed,  living  in  the  tiny  hall-room 
he  would  have  been  ashamed  to  have  his  friends 

9 


BLUE  ANCHOR  INN 

see,  eating  meals  at  quick-lunch  counters,  walk- 
ing instead  of  riding,  enduring  his  winter  suit 
through  the  warm  spring  days,  and  suffering,  in 
a  word,  all  the  tortures  of  poverty,  disappoint- 
ment and  humiliation.  And  now  at  last  when 
the  end  had  come  and  there  stood  between  him 
and  the  world  only  somewhat  less  than  four 
dollars,  his  jaded  capacity  for  discouragement  re- 
sponded no  longer.  He  was  an  optimist  and  a 
fatalist,  and  believed  that  when  Dame  Fortune 
gave  a  cuff  with  one  hand  she  would  soon  be 
reaching  out  the  other  to  help  one  up  again.  So 
when  he  saw  Adversity  waiting  for  him  on  the 
far  side  of  his  three  dollars  and  eighty  cents,  he 
faced  her  calmly  and  was  not  terrified. 

"I  wonder,"  he  said,  holding  the  burden  of 
his  wealth  in  his  hand,  "  what  I  shall  do  with  all 
this  money." 

There  was  no  immediate  answer  from  the 
surrounding  atmosphere.  A  newsboy  came 
whistling  down  the  street ;  he  stopped  his  tune 
and  his  progress  to  observe  with  unembarrassed 
interest  the  young  man  standing  by  the  street 

curb. 

10 


BLUE  ANCHOR  INN 

"  Want  a  paper,  mister  ? "  he  suggested  at 
length. 

The  young  man  nodded.  With  one  deft  mo- 
tion the  boy  proffered  the  paper  and  received 
the  money. 

"Son,"  said  the  purchaser,  suddenly,  after  he 
had  given  the  head-lines  a  rather  cursory  glance, 
"  suppose  you  had  four  dollars,  and  no  more, 
just  like  that" — he  showed  the  money  in  his 
hand — "and  you  had  no  chance  of  getting  any 
more,  what  would  you  do  ?  " 

The  boy  answered  promptly. 

"  I'd  blow  it  in,"  he  said. 

The  man  on  the  curb  threw  back  his  head  and 
laughed. 

"  Why,"  he  demanded,  interested  in  this  idea, 
"  wouldn't  it  be  better  to  make  it  last  just  as  long 
as  possible  ?  " 

His  companion  spat  into  the  gutter  with  an  air 
of  great  latent  wisdom. 

"  No,"  he  observed  contemptuously,  "  a  guy 
never  gets  no  fun  out  of  bein*  a  tight-wad. 
Them  dubs  that  keeps  a  strangle-holt  on  their 

coin,  when  they  spends  a  nickel  they  feel  like 

ii 


BLUE  ANCHOR  INN 

they  lost  an  old  friend.  None  o'  that  in  mine. 
I'd  take  them  four  bones  and  drop  'em  all  at 
once  so  they'd  make  a  noise  big  enough  to  hear  a 
block  away." 

The  man  looked  at  him  and  nodded  specu- 
latively. 

"  Then  what  ? "  he  said.  "  That's  not  the  end 
of  everything." 

"  After  that  you're  busted,  ain't  you  ?  " 

"  Un-doubtedly." 

"  When  you're  busted  you  can't  get  any  worse. 
You  got  to  get  better.  Ain't  that  so  ?  " 

But  while  the  man  was  digesting  this  philos- 
ophy the  newsmerchant  darted  away  after  a 
gentleman  in  a  silk  hat  and  was  lost  behind  the 
corner  of  the  street.  The  young  man  slipped 
the  money  back  in  his  pocket  and  jingled  the 
coins  thoughtfully. 

"Well,"  he  muttered  at  length,  "that's  the 
way  I  feel,  too.  I  haven't  the  nerve  to  be  a 
tight-wad,  so  I'll  be  a  spender.  The  whole  thing 
is  over  now.  I'll  be  a  gentleman  to-night.  To- 
morrow, perhaps,  I  can  get  a  job  in  a  department 
store." 

12 


BLUE  ANCHOR  INN 

A  street-car  came  along  and  he  got  aboard. 
He  was  hungry  for  just  one  more  meal  in  the 
haunts  of  civilization.  The  car  stopped  at  a 
wide  street  and  he  presently  found  himself  before 
a  well-lighted  hostelry.  A  man  turned  the 
revolving  door  for  him  as  he  entered.  There 
were  great  scagliola  columns  in  the  lobby,  and 
the  whole  place  fairly  glistened  with  the  pomp 
and  vanity  resulting  from  women  in  expensive 
clothes,  idle  men  lolling  in  leather  chairs,  scurry- 
ing bell-boys,  hurrying  porters  and  all  the  in- 
tricate wheels  of  the  great  deferential  machine 
called  a  hotel. 

He  gave  his  hat  to  the  boy  at  the  door  of  the 
cafe,  placing  a  coin  in  an  obscure  pocket  to 
make  sure  of  being  able  to  tip  him  when  he 
came  out.  His  air  of  being  on  the  point  of 
spending  all  the  money  there  was  made  such  an 
impression  that  he  was  shown  to  a  table  by  a 
window.  He  was  pleased.  It  is  a  very  serious 
matter  to  spend  every  bit  of  your  money  at  one 
time,  and  he  wanted  to  get  all  the  comfort  and 
excitement  he  could  out  of  it.  Brooke  stretched 
his  legs  luxuriously  under  the  table. 

13 


BLUE  ANCHOR  INN 

There  was  an  air  of  general  sociability  in  the 
wide  low-ceilinged  room.  Men  were  scanning 
the  menu  cards  with  pleasant  anticipation,  or 
dining  vigorously,  or  lingering  over  their  tables 
in  a  haze  of  smoke.  Everywhere  was  the 
stimulating  hum  of  conversation  and  laughter. 
Brooke's  heart  warmed  within  him.  He  ran 
his  eye  up  and  down  the  carte  du  jour.  He 
ordered  a  grapefruit  with  a  tiny  glass  of  kummel 
to  pour  upon  it,  for  his  opening  course.  Then 
there  was  to  be  a  filet  mignon  (with  many  direc- 
tions as  to  the  precise  course  to  be  followed  in 
its  preparation)  and  with  it  brussels  sprouts  and 
asparagus. 

The  tall,  grave  waiter,  who  from  his  appear- 
ance might  have  been  a  reincarnation  of  Franz 
Liszt,  suggested  as  homely  a  thing  as  baked 
potato,  which  he  would  doctor  with  paprika  and 
other  things  until  it  was  a  very  wonderful  dish. 
It  was  a  specialty  at  this  particular  place.  Then 
there  was  an  elaborate  salad  with  a  name  like  an 
historical  novel,  composed  of  a  sort  of  glorified 
mayonnaise  and  fruits  and  nuts  and  bits  of 
ambrosia,  perhaps.  The  dessert  was  a  simple 

14 


BLUE  ANCHOR  INN 

thing  called  a  cafe  parfait.  In  the  end  came  a 
little  glass  the  size  of  a  thimble,  in  it,  half-way  to 
the  top,  creme  de  cocoa  with  white  cream  floated 
upon  it. 

It  was  a  tremendous  occasion  for  a  man  who 
had  been  an  exile  from  the  comforts  of  civiliza- 
tion for  a  long  while.  Even  the  strains  of  the 
musical  comedy  frippery  the  orchestra  played 
lifted  him  out  of  himself  into  a  more  rarefied 
atmosphere.  It  was  not  until  the  room  began  to 
thin  out  somewhat  and  he  was  smoking  his 
cigarette  that  he  descended  to  earth.  He  noted 
that  it  was  his  last  cigarette.  Following  out  the 
line  of  thought  suggested  by  this,  he  permitted 
himself  to  wonder  what  steps  the  world  would 
take  to  provide  for  him  at  breakfast  time  on  the 
morrow. 

The  trouble  with  Brooke  was  that  he  had  in- 
vented something.  The  second  trouble  was  that 
something  was  a  useful  article — in  a  word,  a  new 
species  of  concrete  pile.  If  he  had  invented  some 
small  and  frivolous  thing,  such  as  a  can  opener 
or  a  glove  fastener,  or  a  tie  clasp,  he  would  have 
found  a  ready  sale  for  it.  But  a  concrete  pile 

15 


BLUE  ANCHOR  INN 

was  too  big  a  thing  to  succeed  quickly.  It  de- 
pended for  its  success  upon  the  support  of  build- 
ing contractors  and  structural  engineers,  a  race 
of  incredulous  and  cautious  people  who  took  few 
chances. 

One  man  had  indeed  agreed  to  form  a  com- 
pany for  the  exploitation  of  the  pile  if  he  would 
sink  three  or  four  full  size  specimens  so  their 
qualifications  could  be  tested.  This  would  take 
money,  which  he  had  not.  But  though  he  had 
been  through  all  the  possible  forms  of  discour- 
agement, he  did  not  despair.  There  was  always 
hope  in  his  heart. 

There  is  a  verse  which  says,  "  Take,  therefore, 
no  thought  for  the  morrow,  for  the  morrow  shall 
take  thought  for  the  things  of  itself."  Brooke's 
quality  of  mind  was  modeled  on  that.  He  was 
content  to  shift  the  responsibility  of  prolonging 
his  existence  to  some  agency  more  expert  than 
himself,  but  at  the  same  time  he  could  not 
help  wondering  how  it  would  be  done.  It 
did  not  occur  to  him  to  doubt  that  it  would  be 
done. 

A  hand  was  laid  on  his  shoulder. 
16 


BLUE  ANCHOR  INN 

"  Mr.  Brooke,"  said  a  pleasant  voice,  "  you 
linger  long  after  your  dinner." 

Looking  up,  the  young  man  recognized  a 
gentleman  named  Sprague,  a  lawyer  with  whom 
he  once  had  some  dealings. 

Pleased  at  the  appearance  of  even  so  casual 
an  acquaintance,  Brooke  rose  and  greeted  him 
cordially. 

"I  have  an  appointment,"  he  said,  smiling, 
"  with  my  guardian  angel." 

The  lawyer  stared,  then  smiled. 

"  If  you  intend  to  wait,  you  had  better  have  the 
management  set  up  a  cot  for  you,"  he  suggested. 

Brooke  laughed.  The  other  lighted  his  cigar 
and  blew  out  the  match. 

"What  do  you  mean  by  your  remark?"  he 
asked. 

"  Well,  I  am  in  the  hands  of  Providence.  My 
money  is  all  gone.  I  had  three  dollars  and 
eighty  cents  at  six-thirty  this  evening,  which  I 
have  just  made  over  to  the  hotel  in  return  for  a 
very  good  dinner.  Now  I  expect  my  guardian 
angel  to  take  me  by  the  hand  and  lead  me  out 
of  the  dark  to  the  bright  trail." 

17 


BLUE  ANCHOR  INN 

The  other  knitted  his  brows  and  appeared  to 
view  Brooke  from  a  new  angle. 

"Are  you  really  down  and  out?"  he  asked, 
pleasantly. 

"  Yes." 

A  spark  of  excitement  shone  in  Sprague's 
eyes.  He  drew  up  a  chair. 

"Providence,"  he  said,  eyeing  his  companion 
keenly,  "often  sends  its  benefits  in  strange 
packages." 

"All  right;  I'm  not  exactly  in  a  position  to 
choose." 

The  lawyer  rose. 

"That  being  the  case,"  he  said,  "will  you 
come  to  my  office  ?  I  have  a  suggestion  to 
make  to  you." 


18 


CHAPTER  II 

BROOKE  followed  his  companion  in  bewil- 
derment. They  went  up  the  street  to  the 
building  in  which  Sprague  had  his  office  and 
took  the  elevator  to  the  tenth  floor.  The  young 
man  knew  the  office  well,  as  he  had  had  trans- 
actions there  more  than  a  year  before  when  get- 
ting his  patent.  They  went  into  the  inner  room. 

Mr.  Sprague  looked  at  his  watch  and  closed 
the  lid  with  a  snap. 

"  This  is  a  strange  proposition  I  am  about  to 
put  before  you,"  he  began  briskly.  "  I  have  had 
nothing  at  all  like  it  before  in  my  legal  practice." 

"Go  on,"  said  his  companion.  "I  am  all 
impatience." 

"  On  the  fifteenth  of  last  November,"  said  the 
lawyer,  "  a  man  by  the  name  of  Beckendorf  died 
in  East  Saint  Louis.  He  was  a  thrifty  old  party 
who  managed  to  die  possessed  of  nearly  a  hun- 
dred thousand  dollars.  He  had,  however,  only 
one  relative,  a  young  girl  of  about  twenty  odd 

19 


BLUE  ANCHOR  INN 

living  here  in  Philadelphia.  To  her  he  left  the 
entire  sum.  But  either  because  he  had  some 
notions  on  the  subject  of  the  propagation  of  the 
race,  or  because  he  wanted  to  make  people  bear 
him  in  mind  for  a  little  while  after  he  was  dead, 
he  inserted  the  condition  in  his  will  that  she  was 
to  be  married  within  six  months  after  his  death 
or  forfeit  the  money." 

"  He  wanted  to  make  her  earn  it,"  suggested 
Brooke. 

"  Miss  Dean — the  girl  in  question — seems  to 
feel  that  way  about  it.  She  has  put  it  off  and 
put  it  off.  Instead  of  selecting  a  young  man  in 
a  businesslike  way,  marrying  him  and  having 
it  all  over  with,  she  folded  her  hands  in  her  lap 
and  waited  for  the  man  to  come  along.  Now 
that's  no  way  for  a  girl  to  get  a  husband.  She 
ought  to  be  right  on  the  jump  ready  to  pull  him 
in  the  instant  he  gets  his  head  out  of  the  water. 
Nowadays  there  is  so  much  competition  in  every 
line  of  business  that  no  one  can  afford  to  be 
asleep  at  the  switch." 

Brooke  gazed  at  his  companion  in  a  bewil- 
dered sort  of  way. 

20 


BLUE  ANCHOR  INN 

"  Well,  to  make  a  long  story  short,"  went  on 
Sprague,  "  Miss  Dean  suddenly  came  up  against 
the  horrible  discovery  last  week  that  she  had 
only  seven  days  more  in  which  to  get  the  man. 
Terrible  thought !  She  did  not  want  to  lose  the 
money  any  more  than  you  or  I  would.  I  saw  then 
it  was  time  to  take  the  matter  in  my  own  hands. 
As  a  last  resort  I  told  her  I  would  get  the  man." 

The  young  man  smiled. 

"  Now,"  continued  the  lawyer,  "  getting  a  hus- 
band for  a  lady  in  one  week's  time  is  a  much 
more  difficult  undertaking  than  I  suspected.  In 
fact,  until  I  came  across  you,  by  the  merest 
chance,  in  the  hotel  to-night,  I  thought  I  was 
beaten." 

"  Me  ! "  cried  the  other. 

He  gazed  at  the  lawyer  in  open-eyed  astonish- 
ment. 

"  Yes.  Why  not  ?  There  is  five  hundred  dol- 
lars in  it  for  you." 

Brooke  surveyed  his  shoes  dubiously.  This 
was  a  staggering  proposition. 

"Got  another  girl  in  view?"  Sprague  de- 
manded. 

21 


BLUE  ANCHOR  INN 

"  No." 

"  Married  already  ?  " 

"  No." 

Mr.  Sprague  glanced  at  his  watch  again. 

"  This  will  have  none  of  the  inconveniences  of 
the  usual  marriage.  The  lady  leaves  for  Nevada 
on  the  midnight  train  to-night.  She  agrees  to 
get  a  divorce  within  one  year.  That  relieves  you 
of  all  trouble.  If  she  wears  a  veil  you  won't 
even  know  what  she  looks  like,  and  won't  be 
obliged  to  as  much  as  speak  to  her  on  the  street. 
It  is  an  ideal  marriage." 

The  young  man  looked  at  his  companion 
dubiously. 

"Suppose  you  don't  accept  this  offer,"  the 
lawyer  went  on ;  "  what  will  you  do  to-morrow 
morning  when  you  wake  up  without  even  the 
proverbial  thirty  cents  in  your  pocket  ?  " 

Brooke  set  his  teeth. 

"  That  remark  went  right  straight  over  the 
plate,"  he  said  at  length.  "  I  will  marry  your 
girl." 

"  Good !  "  said  Sprague,  and  reached  for  the 

telephone. 

22 


BLUE  ANCHOR  INN 

The  rest  happened  very  quickly.  Sprague 
had  bribed  the  license  clerk  and  a  magistrate 
to  be  where  he  could  get  in  touch  with  them  at 
any  moment  up  to  midnight.  Being  summoned 
by  telephone,  they  made  haste  and  arrived  at 
the  office  before  the  lawyer  had  finished  breaking 
the  glad  news  of  the  wedding  to  the  bride-delect. 

After  about  half  an  hour  of  tedious  waiting 
the  bridal  party  arrived.  There  were  but  two 
people  in  it.  A  slender  woman  in  a  black  dress 
wearing  a  thick  veil,  whom  Brooke  judged  was 
the  bride's  mother,  appeared  first.  The  girl  with 
her  was  rather  more  Irish  than  German,  with 
large  hands  and  a  bloom  on  her  cheek  like  a  red 
apple. 

"  Miss  Dean,  may  I  present  Mr.  Brooke,"  said 
Sprague. 

He  bowed,  and  wondered  why  they  did  not 
introduce  her  mother  too. 

"  Will  you  take  the  lady  by  the  hand  ?  "  said 
the  magistrate. 

Brooke  was  uncertain  which  hand  to  use,  but 
decided  on  his  right.  He  held  that  out  with  a 

show  of  assurance. 

23 


BLUE  ANCHOR  INN 

"  The  other  one,"  whispered  Sprague,  hoarsely. 

He  disagreed  with  Sprague,  but  he  held  out 
his-  left  hand  obediently. 

The  lawyer  grasped  him  by  the  shoulder  and 
turned  him  round. 

"  The  other  girl"  he  cried.  "  That's  her  maid 
you  are  trying  to  marry." 

"  My  mistake,"  said  Brooke,  bowing  graciously. 

He  took  the  hand  the  girl  in  black  held  out 
to  him,  and  the  ceremony  proceeded.  He  could 
see  nothing  of  the  face  beneath  her  veil.  Only 
the  lobe  of  one  ear  was  visible.  He  saw  that 
she  was  wearing  jade  earrings.  He  knew  they 
were  jade  because  he  saw  some  like  them  the 
next  day  in  a  jewelry  shop,  and  inquired  what 
they  were.  When  it  was  all  over  he  leaned 
down  and  said : 

"  Would  you  mind  lifting  your  veil  ?  " 

She  started  to  do  so. 

"  Yes,  I  should,"  she  decided,  suddenly  chang- 
ing her  mind. 

"  Very  good.  In  small  matters,"  he  ex- 
plained, "  I  intend  to  let  my  wife  have  her  own 
way." 

24 


BLUE  ANCHOR  INN 

"  You  have  just  about  time  for  your  train," 
observed  Mr.  Sprague. 

"  Good-bye,"  said  the  girl  in  black. 

She  started  to  go. 

Brooke  tugged  at  a  large  seal  ring  on  his 
ringer. 

"  It  seems  rather  niggardly  not  to  give  your 
wife  a  ring,"  he  told  her.  "  Will  you  take 
this?" 

She  held  out  her  finger,  and  he  slipped  on  the 
gold  band. 

"  Thank  you.     Good-bye." 

When  they  had  gone  he  sank  into  the  nearest 
chair. 

"Short  ceremony,  ain't  it?"  said  the  license 
clerk  by  way  of  conversation. 

"  But  deadly,"  supplemented  the  bridegroom. 


CHAPTER  III 

IT  was  the  thirtieth  day  of  May  one  whole  year 
later.  The  round  red  sun  was  just  rising  out 
of  the  ocean.  It  was  a  gorgeous  spectacle.  The 
sea  was  a  great  sea  of  claret.  The  sky  was  all 
shot  through  with  deep  crimson  and  purple,  and 
up  in  the  zenith  the  wandering  clouds  were  pink 
and  light  as  jewelers'  cotton. 

It  was  some  time  before  the  city  of  Lugger 
Island  began  to  bestir  itself,  and  when  it  did  it 
was  with  an  easy  air  of  indolence.  The  mayor, 
the  president  of  city  councils,  the  chief  of  police 
and  the  official  surveyor  wandered  down  to  the 
beach  and  put  his  fishing  tackle  in  the  long 
boat.  He  was  presently  followed  by  the  entire 
permanent  male  population  of  the  metropolis 
(four  in  number)  who  began  to  make  ready  to 
launch  the  boat  through  the  waves.  Behind 
them  the  city  rested  like  a  phantom  town.  A 
hundred  houses  were  there  in  all  stages  of  dis- 
solution. Shutters  hung  by  one  hinge,  window 

26 


BLUE  ANCHOR  INN 

panes  were  gone,  shingles  had  disappeared,  and 
here  and  there  a  house  had  settled  ridiculously 
on  its  foundations,  and  over  all  rested  the  quiet 
as  of  the  virgin  forest. 

The  city  of  Lugger  Island  was  not  a  metrop- 
olis in  the  same  sense  that  New  York  is.  The 
permanent  population  consisted  at  that  time  of 
the  five  qualified  voters  above  mentioned,  and 
seven  women.  But  there  had  been  palmy  days, 
— days  when  the  permanent  population  numbered 
five  hundred,  the  floating  population  more  than 
a  thousand,  and  the  population  that  simply  sat 
on  the  beach  in  their  bathing-suits  and  did  not 
float  at  all  another  thousand.  Then  the  city  was 
a  real  city.  The  mayor  was  elected  by  a  ma- 
chine ;  the  town  was  run  by  a  boss.  So  great 
was  the  interest  in  elections  that  out  of  the  five 
hundred  flesh  and  blood  people  on  the  island 
more  than  a  thousand  had  their  names  registered 
as  qualified  electors,  and  quite  a  half  of  these  re- 
ceived money  for  their  votes.  In  fact,  no  mod- 
ern municipal  improvement  was  lacking.  Two 
trolley  cars  toured  the  island ;  the  three  hotels 

were  all  that  summer  hotels  should  be ;  a  rail- 

27 


BLUE  ANCHOR  INN 

road  that  ran  across  the  sketchy  trestle  from  the 
mainland  to  the  island  delivered  its  trains  an  hour 
or  so  late  with  almost  superhuman  New  Jersey 
regularity. 

Those  days  indeed  were  the  happy,  happy  days. 
But  one  November  a  great  squall  came  up  out 
of  the  northeast.  The  mayor  and  the  city  coun- 
cil saw  it,  and  looked  very  serious.  The  railroad 
trestle  saw  it  first  of  all,  and  kissed  both  shores 
good-bye.  When  the  first  high  wave  came 
along  it  laid  its  withered  form  on  that  billowy 
crest  and  never  stopped  its  flight  until  it  went 
ashore  at  Cape  May,  miles  and  miles  to  the 
south. 

That  was  the  beginning  of  the  decline  of  Lug- 
ger Island.  The  railroad  company  never  rebuilt 
their  track.  The  hotels  never  reopened.  Prop- 
erty values  were  so  reduced  that  it  was  cheaper 
to  move  away  than  to  stay.  Nobody  knew  where 
the  five  hundred  disappeared  to.  But  they  did 
disappear,  quickly  and  silently,  and  the  town  was 
now  a  mere  faded  memory  of  what  it  once  had 
been. 

Lugger  Island  was  now  a  poor,  tame  and  un- 
28 


BLUE  ANCHOR  INN 

exciting  place  to  serve  as  a  human  habitation. 
It  would  have  been  still  tamer  and  more  unex- 
citing if  it  had  not  been  for  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Edward 
Gilpin.  They  were  the  two  people  who  upheld 
the  island's  self-respect,  for  they  were  "  summer 
people,"  and  came  there  to  live  for  four  months 
every  year  because  they  liked  it.  They  had  re- 
paired the  old  Blue  Anchor  Inn,  a  long,  rambling 
structure,  and  made  a  house  of  it.  Before  this 
hostelry  still  swung  the  old  sign.  It  stated  em- 
phatically, in  large  blue  letters,  that  the  structure 
was  the  "  Blue  Anchor  Inn,"  and  the  Gilpins,  in 
common  with  the  other  inhabitants  of  the  island, 
continued  to  use  the  name.  It  seemed  a  dese- 
cration to  remove  the  sign,  and  it  was  a  phys- 
ical impossibility  to  contradict  it.  Even  the  two 
painted  emblems,  which  preceded  and  followed 
the  painted  name,  while  they  looked  more  like 
blue  egg-beaters  or  blue  cuff-links  or  almost  any 
other  unmaritime  object,  were  admitted,  by  reason 
of  the  personal  force  of  the  name,  to  be  real 
anchors.  So  the  Gilpins  called  it  the  Blue 
Anchor  Inn,  as  of  yore.  As  the  occupants  of  the 

ancient  structure,  they  furnished  the  excitement 

29 


BLUE  ANCHOR  INN 

and  bolstered  up  the  local  pride  of  that  faded 
resort.  For  they  had  guests  who  furnished  theme 
for  gossip  and  conversation  to  the  whole  tiny 
community.  Even  now,  as  the  five  fishermen 
pulled  their  boat  out  to  sea,  they  were  discussing 
with  unflagging  interest  the  two  visitors  who  had 
arrived  the  night  before — a  tall,  dark-haired 
young  man,  and  a  blond,  serious-looking  person 
with  black-rimmed  eye-glasses.  But  if  these  fish- 
ermen were  thrilled  by  the  new  arrivals,  their 
excitement  was  as  nothing  compared  with  the 
animation  that  possessed  the  little  breakfast  table 
at  the  Blue  Anchor  Inn. 

Mrs.  Gilpin,  looking  very  trim  and  pretty,  sat 
at  the  head  of  the  table,  her  husband,  a  rotund, 
jolly  man  of  about  thirty  years,  facing  her.  On 
her  right  was  the  blond  gentleman  with  the  tor- 
toise-shell eye-glasses.  He  was  a  very  serious- 
looking  individual,  and  rather  over-fastidious,  as 
was  shown  by  the  wide  black  band  that  hung 
from  the  glasses.  On  her  left  was  the  tall,  dark- 
haired  young  man.  At  any  other  time  Mrs.  Gil- 
pin  would  have  held  the  attention  of  the  three 

men  absolutely  to  herself,  but  two  of  them  were 

30 


BLUE  ANCHOR  INN 

intently  listening  to  the  tall,  dark  one,  and  she 
was  listening  with,  if  possible,  even  more  intent- 
ness  than  the  others. 

They  had  not  seen  the  young  man  in  several 
years.  In  the  last  year  he  had  had  a  strange  ex- 
perience. Presently  Mrs.  Gilpin's  interest  in  the 
story  he  was  telling  grew  entirely  too  rarefied  for 
silence. 

"  But  you  couldn't  possibly  think,"  she  cried 
in  astonishment,  "  of  marrying  her  under  those 
conditions." 

The  young  man  studied  his  spoon  reflectively 
for  a  moment. 

"  Well,  I  thought  twice,"  he  said  slowly,  "  and 
then  I  did  it." 

His  hostess  poured  the  cream  in  the  sugar  in- 
stead of  on  her  berries. 

"  Well,  I  never  ! "  she  ejaculated. 

"  It  would  be  simpler,"  chuckled  Gilpin,  "  to 
pour  it  on  the  floor." 

"  But,  Roger  Brooke,"  she  cried,  ignoring  in- 
terruptions, "  I  am  sure  I  never  heard  of  such  a 
thing ! " 

"  There,  Roger,"  declared  the  head  of  the  house, 


BLUE  ANCHOR  INN 

"  that  doesn't  leave  you  a  leg  to  stand  on.     If 
Mrs.  Edward  Gilpin  has  never  heard  of  it " 

"  Ned,  do  be  quiet.     You're  such  a  bore." 

The  serious  young  man  (whose  name  was 
Halsey)  took  the  floor,  in  a  gentleman-of-the-jury 
manner,  which  never,  even  in  his  moments  of 
relaxation,  left  him. 

"  You  say  you  married  her  a  year  ago  the  fif- 
teenth of  this  month?"  he  asked. 

"  Yes." 

"  And  in  all  that  time  you  haven't  even  seen 
her?" 

"  Not  to  my  knowledge." 

"  Not  to  your  knowledge ! "  cried  Mrs. 
Gilpin. 

"  Well,  you  see,  I  have  no  idea  in  the  world 
what  she  looks  like,  except  that  she  wears  jade 
earrings." 

"  Is  she  a  Caucasian  ?  "  ventured  Gilpin. 

"  Don't  joke  with  him,  Ned,"  exclaimed  his 
wife  severely.  "  Roger  Brooke,  you  ought  to  be 
spanked  and  sent  to  bed  without  your  supper 
every  night  for  a  year." 

"  I  know  it,"  murmured  Brooke. 
32 


BLUE  ANCHOR  INN 

"  Suppose  something  should  turn  up,  and  they 
wouldn't  grant  her  a  divorce,  look  what  a  posi- 
tion you  would  be  in." 

"  The  chance  of  that  is  not  so  very  remote, 
either,"  put  in  Halsey.  "  If  they  found  there  was 
collusion " 

"  What  is  collusion  ?  Is  that  what  I  have  on 
my  thumb?" 

She  held  up  a  pretty  white  hand  for  inspection 
and  commiseration. 

"  Contusion,  my  dear,  contusion,"  explained 
her  husband,  from  his  superior  pinnacle  of  knowl- 
edge. 

"  If  they  found  there  was  collusion,"  went  on 
Halsey,  "  that  is,  that  you  had  arranged  it  all  be- 
forehand, the  machinery  of  the  law  would  not 
grant  a  divorce." 

"  That  would  be  simply  horrible  !  "  cried  the 
lady. 

Brooke  nodded. 

"  The  lawyer  spoke  about  that  collusion  idea," 
he  said,  in  a  moment.  "  He  seemed  to  be 
nervous  about  it.  He  said  I  was  not  to  com- 
municate with  him  for  a  year  in  any  way  what- 

33 


BLUE  ANCHOR  INN 

ever.  That  would  allay  suspicion  as  to  the  thing 
having  been  fixed." 

"  And  you  didn't  know  anything  about  it  for  a 
whole  year  ?  " 

"  Not  until  two  weeks  ago,  when  I  went  to  see 
Sprague." 

"  Well,"  demanded  Gilpin,  "  what  did  Sprague 
say  ?  " 

Brooke  smiled,  a  little  wanly. 

"  They  wouldn't  grant  the  divorce ! "  cried  the 
young  hostess  excitedly. 

"  Worse  than  that." 

"Worse  than  that?" 

"  The  lady  has  come  on  East  again.  She  never 
even  applied  for  a  divorce." 

Gilpin  laid  down  his  fork  and  looked  at  him  in 
astonishment. 

"What  do  you  make  of  that?  "  he  demanded, 
at  length. 

"I  suppose,"  said  the  other  shortly,  "she 
didn't  want  one." 


34 


CHAPTER  IV 

GILPIN'S  round  face  grew  very  long. 
"That  is  a  complication,"  he  exclaimed 
seriously. 

Mrs.  Gilpin  gazed  at  Brooke  with  ready 
sympathy. 

"  Never  mind,  it  will  come  out  all  right,"  she 
said,  with  no  especial  originality. 

"But  what  is  her  game?  I  feel  like  Damocles 
with  the  sword  hanging  overhead.  Any  minute 
it  may  drop.  I'm  liable  to  her  for  support,  pro- 
tection, love,  honor,  obedience,  milliners'  bills, 
everything.  Every  strange  woman  that  looks  at 
me  on  the  street  makes  the  cold  chills  run  up  my 
back.  Some  day  one  of  them  will  nip  me  firmly 
by  the  ear  and  say,  '  Come  on  ! '  and  that  will  be 
the  end  of  me." 

Gilpin  helped  himself  generously  from  the 
platter  before  him.  He  turned  to  Brooke  with  a 
cheerful  smile. 

"  Oh,  rot ! "  he  exclaimed.  "  You  don't  sup- 
35 


BLUE  ANCHOR  INN 

pose  the  lady  has  arrived  at  that  state  of  mental 
depravity  where  she  actually  wants  you  for  a 
husband,  do  you  ?  " 

"  Then  why  didn't  she  get  a  divorce  when  she 
had  a  chance  ?  I've  lost  pounds  worrying  over 
the  question.  I've  got  so  I  don't  go  out  on  the 
street  any  more  than  I  have  to  in  the  daytime, 
and  then  I  stick  strictly  to  the  back  ways  and 
alleys." 

"  Not  really,"  cried  Mrs.  Gilpin. 

"  It's  a  humiliating  state  of  affairs.  But  put 
yourself  in  my  place.  Here  you  are  one  minute 
a  care-free  bachelor,  respected  by  friends  and 
relatives  alike,  regarding  life,  in  fact,  as  a  pastime, 
when  suddenly  some  one  touches  you  on  the 
shoulder,  and — in  a  moment  you  are  a  married 
man ! " 

"  It's  gone  to  his  head,  Neddy,"  sighed  Mrs. 
Gilpin  sadly.  "  We  shall  have  to  keep  him  here 
during  June,  while  you  are  taking  your  vacation, 
and  let  him  have  complete  rest." 

Gilpin  looked  up. 

"  What  people  in  your  condition  need  is  total 
relaxation,"  he  observed,  emphasizing  the  fact 

36 


BLUE  ANCHOR  INN 

with  his  pudgy  forefinger.  "  They  should  be 
removed  from  all  possibility  of  contact  with  their 
own  particular  bete  noz'r." 

"  Exactly,"  cried  his  wife. 

"  My  better  half  agrees  with  me.  This  should 
be  an  omen  of  good  luck.  Don't  you  be  dis- 
couraged, Roger,  old  boy ;  you'll  pull  through 
all  right." 

"You  all  talk  as  if  I  had  softening  of  the 
brain,"  said  Brooke,  half  amused  and  half  re- 
sentful. 

"  Ned,"  said  the  fair  hostess,  taking  charge 
of  the  situation,  "  suppose  you  telegraph  to  some 
one  in  his  house  to  send  down  a  trunkful  of 
things  for  him." 

"  Oh,  I  couldn't  think "  began  the  young 

man. 

Gilpin  put  his  hand  on  his  shoulder. 

"  What  you  need  is  rest,  and  absolute  quiet, 
Roger.  The  possibility  of  a  fellow's  wife  catch- 
ing up  to  him  after  he  thought  he  was  safely  rid 
of  her  is  enough  to  unnerve  any  man." 

Mrs.  Gilpin  sniffed.  Her  husband's  eyes 
twinkled 

37 


BLUE  ANCHOR  INN 

"  That  is.  in  most  cases,"  he  went  on  seriously. 
"  Now,  Roger,  you  have  only  one  job  in  town, 
and  you  said  that  was  held  up  until  they  settled 
a  flaw  in  the  title.  So  what's  to  prevent  your 
staying  ?  " 

Brooke  could  remember  only  dimly  his  last 
vacation,  and  this  being  an  especially  propitious 
time,  nothing  seemed  to  develop  to  prevent  his 
accepting  his  hostess'  invitation  without  amend- 
ment. So  before  he  had  time  to  realize  the  situa- 
tion entirely  he  found  himself  composing  a  letter 
to  his  roommate  asking  him  to  fill  a  trunk  with 
assorted  wardrobe  and  ship  it  to  him.  His 
roommate  was  a  dependable  fellow.  It  was 
therefore  within  the  bounds  of  possibility  that 
ere  long  this  paraphernalia  would  arrive. 

The  mere  composing  of  the  letter  put  him  in  ex- 
cellent spirits,  and  by  the  time  he  had  finished  an- 
other to  the  Schuylkill  Concrete  Pile  Company, 
of  which  he  was  the  junior  partner,  saying  that  on 
account  of  his  run-down  condition  he  would  take 
advantage  of  the  lull  in  business  and  begin  his 
vacation  immediately,  he  was  jubilant.  He 
strongly  suspected  that  he  would  be  consider- 

38 


BLUE  ANCHOR  INN 

ably  more  run  down  at  the  office  on  the  morrow 
than  his  condition  had  ever  been,  but  that  did 
not  worry  him. 

In  a  moment  a  load  had  been  lifted  from  his 
mind.  What  could  be  more  joyous  and  sooth- 
ing than  this  island  with  all  its  peace  and  quiet, 
with  none  of  the  complications  existing  in  the 
city  he  had  left  behind,  with  no  strange  women 
present,  and  with  no  place  for  strange  women  to 
come  from?  It  was  an  exhilarating  spot.  He 
was  glad  Gilpin  lived  there  and  owned  the  whole 
island. 

For  at  the  time  of  the  washing  away  of  the 
railroad  trestle,  and  the  subsequent  decline  in 
real  estate  values  on  Lugger  Island,  Ned  Gilpin's 
uncle  had  held  mortgages  on  most  of  the  prop- 
erty there,  and  when  land  had  depreciated  to 
such  an  extent  that  it  was  worth  almost  as  much 
per  square  foot  as  the  water  surrounding  it,  he 
found  it  necessary,  when  the  notes  came  due  and 
were  not  paid,  to  foreclose.  By  so  doing  he 
came  into  possession  of  a  large  tract  of  real 
estate  chiefly  remarkable  for  its  extent.  He  died 
a  poor  man,  and  Ned  Gilpin  inherited  the  whole 

39 


BLUE  ANCHOR  INN 

island  from  him.  It  was  rather  in  the  nature  of 
a  white  elephant  on  his  hands,  but  he  and  his 
wife  discovered  soon  that,  as  they  had  little 
money  for  vacation  frivolities,  it  made  an  excel- 
lent summer  place.  Except  for  about  a  month 
or  six  weeks  of  the  year  when  he  stayed  on  the 
island  all  the  time,  Gilpin  went  to  and  from  the 
city  every  day,  accomplishing  the  first  lap  of  the 
journey  by  means  of  a  thirty-five  foot  motor  boat, 
which  was  their  only  means  of  communication 
with  the  mainland. 

It  was  a  glorious  place  to  loaf  and  breathe  the 
fresh  air,  as  Brooke  discovered  very  soon.  At 
eleven  o'clock  they  all  donned  their  bathing-suits 
and  sauntered  down  the  main  street  of  the  town, 
a  broad  avenue  extending  from  the  Blue  Anchor 
Inn  to  the  sea.  There  was  a  wooden  sidewalk 
on  one  side  of  the  street  which  had  come  to  a 
state  of  senile  irritability  that  caused  the  boards 
every  once  in  a  while  to  spring  up  suddenly  upon 
the  unsuspecting  pedestrian.  The  houses  lining 
Main  Street  were  inhabited  only  by  the  memory 
of  former  days.  The  porches  that  once,  on  the 

approach  of  meal  time,  had  filled  with  hungry 

40 


BLUE  ANCHOR  INN 

guests  were  empty  now  save  for  the  piles  of 
sand  drifted  ankle-deep  upon  them,  or  for  the 
swinging  corpse  of  a  hammock  in  which  many 
an  ardent  swain,  before  the  invention  of  the  arc 
light,  had  pressed  his  lady  love  to  his  breast. 
The  cross  streets  were  neatly  designated  by 
printed  boards,  and  sometimes  one  could  dis- 
tinguish on  the  houses  numbers  which  guided 
the  former  postman  in  his  delivery  of  long- 
forgotten  love-letters. 

It  will  be  seen  that  there  was  no  longer  any 
sizzling  gayety  at  Lugger  Island.  No  band 
played  rag-time  all  the  afternoon.  No  artists 
modeled  figures  in  the  sand.  No  one  sold  salt- 
water taffy,  or  Mexican  drawn  work,  or  Japanese 
bric-a-brac.  But  the  beach  was  one  wide  stretch 
of  sand,  smooth  and  hard,  and  almost  untouched 
by  human  feet ;  the  waves  rolled  in  and  broke, 
and  the  whine  of  no  merry-go-round  made  dis- 
cord with  them.  The  sky  was  a  clear  and  solid 
blue.  The  gulls  flew  low  and  wet  their  wings 
in  the  sea.  Less  than  a  quarter  of  a  mile  off, 
standing  in  somewhat  toward  the  shore,  saun- 
tered a  trim  yawl,  her  three  sunlit  sails  cutting 


BLUE  ANCHOR  INN 

the  horizon  sharply.  In  the  foreground  riding 
the  waves  was  the  incoming  fisher  boat,  the 
spray  splashing  from  her  bows  as  the  four  men 
bent  to  their  oars. 

The  odor  of  the  brine  filled  Brooke's  nostrils. 
His  youth  and  animal  spirits  surged  within  him. 
He  felt  the  pleasant  physical  power  that  comes 
from  the  bright  sun,  the  clear  air,  an  unclouded 
mind,  and  a  sense  of  no  responsibility.  He  raced 
down  the  beach,  and,  plunging  in,  swam  far,  far 
out  until  it  seemed  almost  that  the  spires  of 
London  Town  were  just  out  of  sight  in  the 
distance. 

He  also  might  have  had  a  better  view  of  the 
yawl  with  the  white  sails  had  he  been  interested. 
But  he  was  not,  and  swam  on  with  an  easy  over- 
hand stroke,  oblivious  of  everything  save  the 
fact  that  here,  far  from  the  haunts  of  men,  his 
mind  rested  in  peace. 


42 


CHAPTER  V 

life-boat  with  its  cargo  of  fish  being 
•*•  safely  landed,  his  honor  the  mayor  took 
a  turn  up  the  beach.  There  was  a  lack  of  ex- 
ecutive ostentation  about  him,  a  certain  Jeffer- 
sonian  simplicity  that  bespoke  familiarity  with 
the  life  of  his  constituents.  His  hands  were 
not  afraid  of  the  soil  he  governed.  His  clothes 
were  not  too  good  to  take  the  spray  of  the  sea 
which  washed  his  domain.  In  fact,  the  executive 
costume,  once  of  a  full  black,  had  corroded  to 
a  moss  green  under  the  efforts  of  the  broad 
Atlantic.  No  ornaments  or  insignia  of  office 
decorated  his  person  save  two  bright  collar-but- 
tons, fore  and  aft,  which  shone  in  the  sun  like 
the  brazen  belaying-pins  of  a  revenue  cutter. 
His  face  was  the  face  of  a  benevolent  despot. 
He  had  great  white,  bushy  eyebrows,  which 
almost  concealed  his  kindly  bright  eyes,  a  tous- 
led head  of  white  hair,  a  long,  roistering,  pi- 
ratical beak  of  a  nose,  a  bushy  festoon  of  beard 

43 


BLUE  ANCHOR  INN 

under  his  chin,  and  an  expanse  of  upper  lip  on 
which  the  growth  had  been  impeded  to  such  an 
extent  by  the  use  of  some  edged  tool  that  it 
might  be  said  in  a  manner  of  speaking  to  be 
smooth  shaven. 

As  he  strolled  along  the  sands  in  the  general 
direction  in  which  his  midday  meal  lay,  he  kept 
an  anxious  eye  on  the  yawl  running  along  close 
inshore.  He  had  never  seen  a  boat  sail  so  close 
in  before,  and  was  interested  to  know  what  would 
happen  to  her.  Presently  he  came  to  the  street, 
close  by  the  spot  where  the  Gilpins  and  their 
guests  lay  basking  in  the  sun,  by  which  he  must 
leave  the  sandy  shore  and  plunge  into  the  heart 
of  the  metropolis  in  search  of  his  dinner.  He 
paused  and  saluted  the  party. 

"What's  he  running  so  close  in  for,  cap'n?" 
demanded  Gilpin,  who  was  watching  the  sail 
through  a  pair  of  glasses. 

The  mayor  passed  his  hand  through  his  hair. 

"  'Tain't  on  account  of  lack  of  room,"  he  ven- 
tured. "  Th'  ocean's  about  three  thousand  miles 
wide  at  this  particular  point." 

Gilpin  pointed  his  glasses  again. 
44 


BLUE  ANCHOR  INN 

"They  aren't  even  heaving  a  lead.  What 
kind  of  a  sailor  is  he,  anyway  ?  " 

"  I  jedge  that  in  early  life  he  was  trained  as  a 
bookkeeper,"  returned  the  mayor.  "  Yes,  sir ; 
he's  sailed  over  about  eleven  localities  where 
there's  scarcely  enough  water  to  wet  your  feet, 
and  only  the  angels  in  heaven  could  'a'  kept 
that  boat  from  stickin'." 

" 1  don't  see  why  she  hasn't." 

"  I  don't  know ;  but  I  know  this,"  said  the 
cap'n  with  finality ;  "  if  she  doesn't  bump  soon, 
rm  going  to  my  dinner." 

As  if  in  immediate  answer  to  this  ultimatum, 
the  yawl  came  to  an  abrupt  stop.  The  man  at 
the  wheel  took  a  header  over  it.  People  appeared 
out  of  the  cabin.  There  was  no  doubt  about  it, 
the  yawl  was  fast  aground.  The  big  mainsail, 
and  the  little  jigger  sail  abaft  the  wheel,  filled 
and  tugged  manfully,  driving  her  further  on  the 
bar.  Presently  the  man,  who  had  done  the  somer- 
sault over  the  wheel,  loosened  the  halyards  on 
the  jigger,  and  it  came  down  with  a  run.  The 
foresail  came  down  next,  and  finally,  after  some 
confusion  and  delay,  the  mainsail  drooped,  the 

45 


BLUE  ANCHOR  INN 

big  canvas  shook  and  rippled,  and  lowered  itself 
slowly  out  of  the  landscape  with  a  rattle  of  rings 
that  could  be  heard  on  shore.  The  yawl  stood 
still  like  a  hitched  horse,  the  masts  swinging 
back  and  forth  with  the  waves  and  the  incoming 
waves  splashing  against  her  quarter. 

"  How  soon  will  she  float  off  ? "  asked  Gilpin, 
turning  to  the  mayor. 

"  High  tide  now.  Too  late  to  get  her  off  till 
to-morrow,"  said  the  mayor. 

Gilpin  rose. 

"That  being  the  case,  Captain  John,  either 
you  and  the  others  will  have  to  go  out  in  your 
boat  after  them,  or  I'll  have  to  bring  round  my 
launch." 

Captain  John  surveyed  the  sailboat  through 
Gilpin's  glasses. 

"  There's  wimmin  aboard  that  yawl,"  he  an- 
nounced accusingly. 

Gilpin  nodded. 

"  I'm  not  going  t'  land  any  more  females 
through  the  surf,"  added  the  captain  with 
finality. 

Extracting  a  well-built  chronometer  from  his 
46 


BLUE  ANCHOR  INN 

hip  pocket,  thereupon  he  took  a  reading  of  the 
time,  and  nodding  pleasantly  to  them,  strode  off 
up  the  street,  eliminating  himself  from  the  sit- 
uation. 

Gilpin  looked  out  at  the  stranded  yawl  cheer- 
fully. 

"  We  really  must  move  to  some  quiet  place," 
he  remarked.  "There  is  too  much  excitement 
at  Lugger  Island." 

Whereupon  they  gathered  up  their  sunshades 
and  other  paraphernalia  and  followed  Captain 
John  into  the  city  limits.  Arriving  at  the  house 
they  released  Willy,  the  butler,  mechanician, 
horticulturist  and  man  of  all  work  in  the  Gilpin 
household,  from  his  job  of  shelling  peas,  and 
putting  him  in  the  launch,  instructed  him  to 
make  a  daring  rescue  at  sea.  Willy,  who  had 
grown  so  blase  that  the  shelling  of  peas  was  no 
longer  a  pastime,  joyfully  started  the  engine 
and  went  put-put-putting  down  the  strip  of  water 
between  the  island  and  the  mainland.  The  others 
departed  to  lunch. 

A  rescue  from  a  boat  stuck  in  the  mud  is 
about  as  romantic  as  extracting  a  fat  lady 

47 


BLUE  ANCHOR  INN 

from  a  broken-down  hansom  cab.  Gilpin  was 
very  much  annoyed  at  the  whole  proceeding. 
It  would  be  impossible  to  pull  the  yawl  off  be- 
fore noon  on  the  following  day,  and  meanwhile 
they  would  have  to  take  care  of  the  party  on 
board,  whatever  their  character,  personal  attrac- 
tions, or  numerical  strength.  This  was  some- 
what disturbing. 

Presently,  from  the  window  of  the  dining- 
room,  they  could  see  the  launch  maneuvering 
about  in  an  endeavor  to  come  alongside  the 
stranded  vessel.  This  accomplished  presently 
without  apparent  mishap,  the  passengers  disem- 
barked. 

The  launch  backed  safely  away  into  deep 
water,  stood  still  for  a  moment,  and  then  with 
her  exhaust  shooting  like  a  Catling  gun,  made 
off  down  the  coast.  The  masts  of  the  yawl  were 
already  beginning  to  slump,  as  she  listed  with 
the  falling  tide. 

In  about  half  an  hour  the  launch  was  heard 
coming  back  on  the  land  side  of  the  island,  and 
down  they  went  to  the  shore  to  greet  their 
guests. 

48 


BLUE  ANCHOR  INN 

They  were  rather  relieved,  however,  to  find 
that  the  party  really  regarded  itself  as  consisting 
of  but  two  people,  an  old  man  of  about  sixty, 
and  a  slim  young  woman  who  might  have  been 
anywhere  from  twenty-five  to  thirty.  The  old 
man  was  a  strange  individual.  He  wore  a 
straw  hat  that  must  have  been  in  the  family  for 
years.  His  head  was  so  bald  that  all  that  re- 
mained of  his  former  growth  of  hair  was  a  little 
fringe  connecting  his  ears  in  the  back,  which 
looked  as  if  it  might  have  been  the  lining  of  his 
hat  hanging  down.  His  suit  of  clothes,  which 
was  of  good  quality,  was  very  much  mussed  and 
had  creases  and  ripples  running  over  it  in  every 
direction.  There  was  no  system  about  him.  All 
his  trappings  and  accouterments  seemed  to  be 
shifting  for  themselves.  His  thin  gray  beard  and 
his  moth-eaten  mustache,  the  gold-rimmed 
spectacles  mended  at  the  joint  with  white  thread, 
all  had  a  go-it-alone  appearance  as  though  they 
had  never  at  any  time  had  any  one  to  take  care 
of  them. 

"  He  looks  as  if  he  were  made  up  to  be  funny," 
Brooke  remarked,  under  his  breath. 

49 


BLUE  ANCHOR  INN 

The  young  woman  was  very  trim  and  well 
dressed.  Her  small  white  pumps  fitted  admi- 
rably. There  was  a  saucy  hang  to  her  spotless 
duck  skirt.  Her  embroidered  shirt-waist  and 
the  cascade  of  real  lace  at  her  throat  were  im- 
maculate to  a  fault.  She  was  very  attractive  to 
look  at. 

There  were,  besides  these  two,  a  young  woman 
who  appeared  to  act  in  the  capacity  of  com- 
panion or  courier  for  the  lady,  a  sunburned, 
weathered  person,  who  was  doubtless  the  skipper, 
and  the  broad-shouldered  coal-black  cook,  still 
wearing  the  apron  he  had  on  when  the  ship 
struck  the  bar. 

The  lady  came  forward  with  easy  self-posses- 
sion. As  Mrs.  Gilpin  took  her  hand,  she  noticed 
that  the  newcomer  wore  jade  earrings.  She 
turned  to  introduce  her  husband  and  the  others. 
Then  it  was  she  observed  that  Brooke  had  disap- 
peared, but  she  did  not  have  time  to  reason  out 
why. 

The  old  gentleman  was  waiting  behind  his 
companion  with  an  absent  expression  in  his  be- 
nevolent eyes. 

50 


BLUE  ANCHOR  INN 

"  Let  me  present  my  uncle,  Mr.  Still,"  said  the 
lady. 

He  shook  every  one  firmly  by  the  hand  with 
willing  cheerfulness.  Halsey,  who  felt  it  was  his 
duty  to  make  conversation,  seized  upon  the  first 
idea  that  occurred  to  him  and  inquired  : 

"How  did  you  like  that  sand-bar ? " 

The  old  gentleman  stared  at  him.  Then  he 
smiled  pleasantly. 

"  No,  thanks,"  he  said  in  a  high,  hollow  voice, 
"  I  never  indulge,"  and  hurried  forward  after  the 
others. 

Halsey  followed  in  a  dazed  sort  of  way. 

"  I'm  sorry,"  Mrs.  Gilpin  was  saying  to  the 
lady,  "  that  you  had  to  run  aground,  Miss — Still, 
is  it  ?  "  she  suggested  hesitatingly. 

The  young  woman  laughed 

"  No,"  she  said  "  My  name  is  Brooke — Mrs. 
Brooke." 


CHAPTER  VI 

MRS.  GILPIN  made  it  a  point  never  to  allow 
her  emotions  to  get  the  better  of  her.  She 
shut  her  lips  firmly  and  nodded,  with  a  show  of 
indifference.  Wild  horses  could  not  have  dragged 
from  her  a  confession  that  the  name  of  Brooke 
meant  any  more  to  her  than  that  of  Jones  or 
Smith,  or  any  other  monosyllabic  appellation. 
The  fact  that  the  newcomer  appeared  to  look  at 
her  searchingly,  as  if  to  discover  what  effect  the 
disclosure  of  her  name  would  have  on  her,  sealed 
her  lips  the  tighter.  The  Sphinx  herself  could 
not  have  been  more  reserved  than  was  Mrs. 
Gilpin. 

Arriving  at  the  house  the  shipwrecked  lady  ex- 
pressed a  desire  to  change  to  more  presentable 
attire,  her  clothes  (though  it  was  not  noticeable  to 
the  average  eye)  having  been  splashed  and  soiled 
in  the  transit.  The  two  women  therefore  repaired 
to  regions  above,  accompanied  by  Miss  Grey, 

52 


BLUE  ANCHOR  INN 

who  bore  a  suit-case  which  the  coal-black  person 
had  brought  up  from  the  launch. 

Gilpin  and  Halsey  found  themselves  seated  on 
the  long  front  porch  with  the  amiable  Mr.  Still. 
The  two  young  men  were  both  rather  cautious 
about  putting  forth  a  conversational  opening. 
Presently,  however,  the  old  gentleman  looked  up 
at  the  sign  over  the  door,  which  said  in  faded  let- 
ters, "  Blue  Anchor  Inn."  It  aroused  his  inter- 
est. 

"  Do  much  business  ?  "  he  asked  genially,  still 
in  his  toneless  voice. 

Gilpin  suddenly  got  the  idea  the  old  man  was 
deaf. 

"  This  is  not  a  real  hotel,"  he  shouted. 

Mr.  Still  waved  his  hand  deprecatingly. 

"  It  does  very  well,  it  does  very  well,"  he  said 
soothingly.  "All  of  us  can't  keep  Waldorf- 
Astorias." 

"This  is  my  private  residence,"  cried  Gilpin, 
his  cherubic  face  very  red. 

"  Best  way  to  run  it,"  nodded  the  other  com- 
prehendingly.  "  Just  like  a  private  house.  What 
are  your  rates?" 

53 


BLUE  ANCHOR  INN 

Gilpin  stood  up  and  shouted  in  the  man's  ear : 

"  This  is  not  a  business  proposition." 

"  Maybe  you  had  better  raise  your  voice  a  lit- 
tle," suggested  Halsey,  adjusting  his  eye-glasses. 
"  He  doesn't  seem  to  hear  you." 

Gilpin  glanced  malevolently  at  him.  Mr.  Still 
recrossed  his  legs. 

"  Business  proposition,"  he  observed,  turning 
his  kindly  eyes  toward  his  exhausted  host. 
"  Well,  I'll  make  one.  Twenty  dollars  a  week," 
he  declared  triumphantly. 

Gilpin  lowered  his  form  into  a  chair. 

"  You  tell  him,  Halsey,"  he  gasped. 

Halsey  stood  up. 

"  No  ! "  he  thundered. 

"  Twenty-five,"  replied  the  other. 

Gilpin  grew  desperate.  He  made  a  trumpet 
of  his  hands. 

"  No  hotel,"  he  vociferated.     "  Nothing  doing." 

He  stood  up  and  pretended  to  erase  the  sign 
over  the  door. 

"Thirty,"  suggested  Mr.  Still,  smiling  with 
childlike  amiability. 

The  young  man  waved  his  hands  wildly  and 
54 


SHE    STOOD    IN    THE    DOORWAY 


BLUE  ANCHOR  INN 

subsided  again  into  the  chair.  There  was  a 
silence,  which  was  broken  presently  by  the  ap- 
pearance of  Mrs.  Brooke  freshly  attired  in  a 
spruce  linen  suit  of  a  strawberry  shade,  or  there- 
abouts. Mr.  Still  turned  as  she  stood  in  the  door- 
way. 

"  What  a  wonderful  ear  he  has  for  color," 
commented  Gilpin. 

"  I  forgot  to  tell  you,"  said  Mrs.  Brooke  regret- 
fully, "  that  my  uncle  is  deaf." 

It  was  impossible  to  be  surprised  at  this. 

"  We  discovered  it,"  murmured  Gilpin. 

"  I  am  so  glad.  Uncle  never  asks  any  one  to 
repeat.  He  just  makes  a  guess  and  takes  a 
chance." 

"  Fate  was  against  him  to-day.  Out  of  twenty 
tries  he  didn't  hit  the  mark  once." 

"  He  does  have  his  off-days,"  admitted  Mrs. 
Brooke. 

"  He  is  very  much  annoyed  now  because  we 
won't  take  him  as  a  guest  at  this  '  hotel.' " 

The  young  woman  laughed. 

"  Poor  Uncle  Samuel.  He's  crazy  to  stay 
somewhere  at  the  seashore."  She  went  over  to 

55 


BLUE  ANCHOR  INN 

the  old  gentleman,  secured  his  attention,  and 
explained  in  a  natural  voice  that  the  house  was 
not  a  hotel.  He  looked  at  the  sign  combatively, 
but  accepted  her  word  for  it  without  further  fili- 
bustering. 

"  Our  shipwrecked  mariners,"  said  Mrs.  Gilpin 
complacently,  "  are  going  to  stay  to-night  in  the 
Other  House." 

Her  husband  looked  surprised.  The  Other 
House  was  a  cottage  further  down  the  street 
which  the  Gilpins  had  furnished  in  a  rather 
sketchy  way,  but  sufficiently  for  seashore  pur- 
poses, so  that  any  of  their  friends  who  wanted  to 
come  down  for  a  week  or  a  month,  and  travel 
back  and  forth,  might  occupy  it.  Gilpin,  who 
felt  hospitality  demanded  that  they  keep  the 
castaways  at  the  Blue  Anchor  Inn,  was  about 
to  object  to  the  idea  of  making  them  shift  for 
themselves,  when  his  wife  hoisted  the  danger 
signal,  and  he,  being  a  sagacious  husband,  de- 
sisted. 

"  Mrs.  Gilpin  was  kind  enough  to  ask  us  to 
stay  here,"  said  Mrs.  Brooke,  "but  as  we  have 
our  own  servant  and  our  own  food  and  all  our 

56 


BLUE  ANCHOR  INN 

own  facilities  for  taking  care  of  ourselves,  it 
would  be  an  imposition  to  descend  on  you  like 
that.  The  house  is  just  what  we  want,  and  I  as- 
sure you  we  shall  be  very  comfortable." 

The  matter  was  therefore  settled  in  that  way, 
not  without  some  relief  to  both  the  young  men, 
who  did  not  relish  the  prospect  of  carrying 
on  general  conversation  with  Mr.  Still.  They 
trooped  off  together,  therefore,  and  saw  the 
new  arrivals  safely  domiciled  in  the  Other 
House,  bag,  baggage,  food,  servant,  sailing 
master,  lady's  companion,  and  all  the  other  ap- 
purtenances that  go  to  make  up  a  happy  house- 
hold. 

"  Where's  Brooke  ?  "  Gilpin  exclaimed,  as  he 
and  his  wife  and  Halsey  were  returning  to  Blue 
Anchor  Inn. 

"  I  think  he  is  in  his  room,"  replied  Mrs. 
Gilpin. 

"What's  that  for?" 

"  The  lady's  earrings  scared  him  off." 

"  Were  they  the  material  they  call  jade  ? " 
asked  Halsey. 

"  The  same." 

57 


BLUE  ANCHOR  INN 

"  Thunder !  "  cried  Gilpin.  "  I  didn't  get  the 
lady's  name,"  he  added. 

"That's  the  funny  part  of  it.  She  is  a  Mrs. 
Brooke." 

Her  husband  sank  down  in  astonishment  upon 
the  step  of  the  porch. 

"  It  couldn't  be "  he  began,  but  stopped 

before  expressing  the  awful  thought. 

"  No,  of  course  not.  The  name  is  a  mere 
coincidence." 

"  But  suppose  it  were  she  ?  " 

Mrs.  Gilpin  shrugged  her  shoulders. 

"  Thank  goodness,"  she  said,  "  we  can  tow  their 
boat  off  to-morrow  and  send  them  on  their  way." 

The  two  men  found  Brooke  in  his  room  lying 
on  the  bed  reading  "  Peter  Ibbetson  "  with  great 
contentment 

"What's  that  woman's  name?"  he  demanded, 
as  they  came  in,  without  taking  his  eyes  off  the 
book. 

Gilpin  slapped  him  boisterously  on  the 
shoulder. 

"  Poor  old  Roger !  Better  stow  yourself  in 
the  garret  now." 

58 


BLUE  ANCHOR  INN 

The  man  on  the  bed  put  down  his  book  with 
such  a  tragic  air  of  concern  that  the  others  burst 
out  laughing. 

"  Do  you  mean "  he  began. 

"Sure;  name's  Brooke!"  cried  Gilpin,  pleas- 
antly. "  Charmin'  woman.  Sure  you'll  like 
her." 

"  Like — the  dickens  !  "  asserted  the  other. 
"  Do  you  know,"  he  added  vigorously,  "  when 
I  saw  those  confounded  ear  decorations,  I  had 
my  suspicions." 

Gilpin  chuckled. 

"  Had  suspicions  ?  "  he  exclaimed.  "  You  had 
a  nervous  chill." 

"  This  seems  to  impress  both  of  you  fellows  as 
being  particularly  humorous,"  returned  Brooke, 
stiffly. 

The  two  men  laughed  and  left  him  to  his 
misery. 

Brooke  therefore  stayed  religiously  in  his 
room.  At  eleven  o'clock  the  next  day  Willy 
and  Gilpin  and  Halsey  and  the  skipper  of  the 
yawl  departed  in  the  launch.  Brooke  from  his 
window  saw  them  go,  and  from  the  other 

59 


BLUE  ANCHOR  INN 

window  of  the  room,  facing  the  sea,  he  saw 
them  bring  the  launch  close  up  to  the  stranded 
yawl.  They  maneuvered  about  for  a  long 
while,  fastening  the  hawser  first  here  and  then 
there,  backing  the  launch  and  starting  her  again, 
pulling  loose  the  rope,  fouling  the  yawl,  choking 
off  the  engine,  and  going  through  all  possible 
maneuvers,  until  finally,  as  if  some  one  had  un- 
bolted something,  the  yawl  slid  off  into  deep 
water  and  was  pulled  to  a  safe  spot  and  an- 
chored. Whereupon  the  launch  went  back  for 
her  passengers,  and  Brooke,  tired  of  the  room, 
rejoiced  that  his  period  of  incarceration  was  at 
an  end. 

But  he  was  just  one  step  in  advance  of  events 
as  laid  out  by  Destiny,  acting  under  the  agency 
of  Mrs.  Brooke.  Whether  it  was  Mr.  Still's 
whim,  or  because  the  fatigue  of  the  day  before 
really  had  been  too  much  for  him,  or  simply  be- 
cause it  was  what  she  herself  wanted,  was  not  at 
all  evident  She  simply  came  to  Mrs.  Gilpin  and 
explained  that  the  events  of  yesterday  had  been 
a  very  great  strain  on  her  uncle,  and  that  there- 
fore she  deemed  it  inadvisable  to  subject  him  to 

60 


BLUE  ANCHOR  INN 

a  trip  on  the  water  so  soon.  Could  it  not  be  ar- 
ranged for  them  to  stay  for  a  few  days  more  in 
the  Other  House  until  Mr.  Still  was  himself 
again  ? 

Poor  Mrs.  Gilpin  was  puzzled.  She  had  seen 
the  old  gentleman  early  in  the  morning,  and  he 
had  looked  as  hale  and  hearty  as  could  be,  and 
certainly  very  little  in  need  of  recuperation. 
However,  if  Mrs.  Brooke  wanted  to  stay  it  was 
difficult  to  assign  a  reason  why  she  should  not. 
So,  while  she  was  anxious  enough  to  have  her 
guests  go,  she  explained  as  gracefully  as  she 
could  that  Mrs.  Brooke  and  her  uncle  were  wel- 
come to  stay  as  long  as  Mr.  Still's  physical  wel- 
fare seemed  to  demand  it. 

This  change  in  plans  necessitated  a  change  of 
anchorage  for  the  yawl.  So  no  sooner  had 
Gilpin  and  Halsey  and  the  skipper  of  the  yawl 
and  Willy  returned  with  the  launch  ready  to 
transport  the  passengers  to  their  destination  than 
they  were  immediately  sent  back  again  to  sail 
the  yawl  around  the  island  to  a  safe  anchorage 
in  a  cove  facing  the  mainland.  It  would  have 

been  well  if  all  this  change  of  plans  had  been  ex- 

61 


BLUE  ANCHOR  INN 

plained  to  Brooke,  but  as  it  was  not,  that  young 
gentleman  sat  by  the  window  watching  the  sail- 
boat riding  at  anchor,  from  which  vantage  point 
he  presently  saw  the  launch  on  its  second  trip 
approach  her.  It  drew  alongside  and  waited  for 
some  time.  People  seemed  to  be  stepping 
aboard,  although  he  could  distinguish  little  de- 
tail in  the  glare  of  the  sun.  The  launch,  having 
accomplished  its  purpose,  pulled  away,  the  sails 
ran  up  on  the  yawl,  up  came  the  anchor,  and  she 
stood  toward  the  south  with  the  breeze  blowing 
across  her  quarter. 

Then,  and  only  then,  did  he  feel  safe.  He 
chucked  "  Peter  Ibbetson  "  at  the  bed,  darted  down 
the  stairs  three  steps  at  a  time  and  burst  out  on 
the  front  porch  where  Mrs.  Gilpin  was  entertain- 
ing Mrs.  Brooke,  awaiting  the  return  of  the  men 
in  the  launch. 

Brooke  stopped  in  his  tracks  as  if  he  had  been 
struck.  He  grasped  weakly  at  the  window  frame, 
and  stared  helplessly  at  the  woman  before  him. 
He  was  as  pale  as  if  he  had  seen  an  apparition. 

"  Mrs.  Brooke,"  said  Mrs.  Gilpin,  without  a 

smile,  "  may  I  present  Mr.  Brooke." 

62 


BLUE  ANCHOR  INN 

These  two  young  people  eyed  each  other  for 
several  seconds  without  a  word. 

Then  Mrs.  Brooke  bowed  and  smiled,  and  Mr. 
Brooke,  in  his  turn,  smiled  and  bowed. 


CHAPTER  VII 

WILLY  was  tinkering  with  the  engine  on  the 
launch.  Not  that  it  needed  to  be  tin- 
kered with,  having  been  running  with  smooth- 
ness and  precision  for  several  weeks,  but  Willy 
was  a  born  mechanic,  and,  as  such,  felt  that  it 
was  necessary  now  and  then  to  give  the  outfit  a 
thorough  going  over,  which  meant  wiping  all  the 
oil  off  the  machine  and  anointing  it  with  more 
of  the  same  oil  in  the  same  places  ;  unwiring  the 
batteries,  changing  their  position,  running  the 
engine  with  half  of  them,  with  all  of  them  but 
one,  or  with  any  other  different  permutation  he 
could  think  of,  and  finally  fixing  them  as  they 
were  at  first ;  removing  bolts  and  nuts,  smearing 
the  side  of  his  nose  and  most  inaccessible  spots 
behind  his  ears  with  grease ;  polishing  up  the 
brass  work,  cleaning  the  fly-wheel  and  cylinder 
boxes  for  one  last  and  final  time,  and  then,  hav- 
ing started  it  going,  sitting  in  front  of  it  and  re- 
flecting what  an  indispensable  thing  a  knowledge 

of  machinery  is. 

64 


BLUE  ANCHOR  INN 

Willy,  therefore,  was  in  the  midst  of  this  de- 
lightful operation.  The  Gilpins'  housemaid,  an 
inhabitant  of  the  island  to  whom  Willy's  su- 
perior urban  wisdom  was  a  source  of  greatest 
wonder,  sat  on  the  bank,  after  the  manner  of 
housemaids  whose  mistresses  have  departed  for 
a  dip  in  the  surf,  and  observed  with  satisfaction 
the  scientific  investigation  of  the  man  in  the  boat, 
who  babbled  on  all  the  while  with  the  easy  air  of 
the  city  bred. 

"  Take  it  from  me,"  he  was  saying,  "  there's 
something  phoney  about  the  new  dame  that's 
just  been  washed  up  on  the  island.  I  don't  get 
hep  to  just  what  her  little  game  is,  you  under- 
stand, but  the  proper  dope  on  the  subject  is  this 
— don't  never  trust  one  of  these  tidy  females  that 
keeps  herself  so  clean  it  hurts  your  eyes  to  look 
at  her." 

The  housemaid  received  this  idea  in  wide- 
eyed  astonishment. 

"  Do  tell !  "  she  ejaculated. 

"  Well,  you  know  how  it  is.  The  skipper  on 
the  yawl  says  she  wouldn't  never  sit  on  anything 
but  a  wicker  chair,  and  every  time  a  fly  lit  on 

65 


BLUE  ANCHOR  INN 

her  shoes  she  went  below  and  changed  'em. 
Now  a  loidy  that  ain't  got  any  more  to  do  than 
that  has  got  some  mischief  up  her  sleeve.  Re- 
ceive it  from  me,  kid." 

"  I  seen  her  a-powdering  of  her  nose  oncet," 
remarked  the  girl  on  the  bank  corroboratively. 
Such  an  operation  in  the  eyes  of  the  inhabitants 
of  the  island  was  a  thing  no  virtuous  and  God- 
fearing woman  would  do. 

"  I  seen  her  pull  that  off  once  or  twice  too," 
agreed  Willy. 

"  Pull  it  off  ?  "  exclaimed  the  maiden,  who  had 
visions  of  some  sort  of  modern  false  appendage 
to  take  the  place  of  an  inferior  one  supplied  by 
nature. 

"  Help  !  "  cried  the  man  in  the  boat.  "  Hes- 
ter, you  are  the  real  ivy  green.  I  mean,  in  the 
language  of  flowers,  that  I  too  have  seen  her 
dust  the  talcum." 

Rather  than  again  appear  to  be  ignorant  of 
the  terms  used  in  polite  society,  Hester  accepted 
this  as  an  explanation. 

"  Now  I'll  put  you  wise  to  something,"  went 

on  Willy,  stopping  the  engine  and  lowering  his 

66 


BLUE  ANCHOR  INN 

voice  to  a  confidential  pitch ;  "  this  running 
aground  the  other  day  wasrit  an  accident.  They 
can't  fool  your  Uncle  Willy." 

She  gazed  at  him  in  admiration. 

"  How  do  I  know  ?  "  cried  he.  "  Simple.  The 
skipper  says  to  me, — '  Willy,'  he  says,  '  don't 
ever  get  in  wrong  like  I  did  and  ship  as  the 
skipper  on  a  pleasure  boat.  I  tell  you  why. 
There  ain't  no  man's  nerves  yet  that  can  stand 
it.  Now  take  Decoration  Day,'  he  says ;  '  I  was 
laying  off  to  take  me  a  holiday  when  long  'bout 
eight  in  the  morning  comes  the  dame  and  her 
granddaddy  on  the  first  train  from  Philadelphia 
and  says,  get  up  the  ank  on  the  jump.'  Then, 
kid,  this  skipper  fellow  has  to  rustle  round  and 
stock  up  the  boat  and  fill  her  with  ice  and  the 
rest  of  the  junk,  and  all  the  while  the  loidy  tell- 
ing him,  you  understand,  to  shake  a  leg  and  get 
going." 

Willy  dived  into  the  bottom  of  the  boat  after 
a  runaway  nut,  and  corralled  it  just  as  it  was 
about  to  hide  in  a  deep  crevice  where  nothing 
but  taking  apart  the  whole  craft  could  have 
retrieved  it. 

67 


BLUE  ANCHOR  INN 

"  Now  you  know,  kid,"  he  went  on,  emerging 
from  this  encounter  with  an  oily  streak  over  his 
eye,  "  there  must  be  some  excitement  to  get  a 
dame  like  that  up  from  her  downy  in  the  morn- 
ing so  as  to  get  to  Isle  City  by  eight  o'clock. 
That  ain't  no  pleasure  trip  for  her.  Either  she 
got  something  on  her  mind,  or  her  granddaddy 
has,  because  the  first  thing  they  says  to  the 
skipper  is,  'Suppose  you  mosey  on  down  past 
Lugger  Island.  We  ain't  never  seen  it'  The 
mere  fact  that's  a  lie,  they  being  perfectly  hep 
to  all  the  geography  of  it,  makes  no  difference 
at  all.  But  when  they  slides  into  sight  of  the 
place  they  makes  the  skipper  pull  in  close  to 
get  a  view, — or  at  least  that's  the  song  they 
sings  him.  He  says  shallow  water,  but  the 
loidy  and  the  old  party  shuts  him  up,  and  then 
when  they  are  coming  head  on  to  the  bar,  and 
he  knows  it's  a  bar  and  shows  them  the  mud  in 
the  water  all  around  it,  they  won't  let  him  pull  out, 
not  one  inch  ;  and  gee !  how  they  hit  that  mud." 

Willy  hit  the  palm  of  his  hand  with  his  fist  to 
convey  the  idea  of  the  bump  that  the  yawl  with- 
stood. 

68 


BLUE  ANCHOR  INN 

"What  good  would  that  do  'em?"  asked 
Hester,  bewildered.  "  People  in  their  right  minds 
ain't  going  to  run  a  good  boat  aground  a-pur- 
pose." 

"You  can't  prove  it  by  me.  Of  course  it 
wouldn't  hurt  the  yawl  to  stick  in  the  mud  for  a 
day,  but  besides  getting  a  free  ride  ashore  and 
a  change  of  scene,  I  don't  see  what  it  netted 
them." 

"Lots  of  these  city  folks  is  /V/sane,"  said  Hes- 
ter, generally. 

"  You  just  moving  in  to  that  idea  ?  "  her  com- 
panion queried. 

Coming  up  the  main  street  after  their  morning 
plunge  could  be  seen  Mrs.  Gilpin  and  the  other 
occupants  of  Blue  Anchor  Inn.  When  Hester 
saw  them  she  hopped  nimbly  to  her  feet  and  ran 
swiftly  to  the  kitchen,  where  she  was  preparing 
luncheon  for  the  hungry  bathers. 

In  the  afternoon  the  inhabitants  of  the  inn 
were  apt  to  do  almost  anything  that  occurred 
to  them.  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Gilpin  were  the  last 
people  in  the  world  to  attempt  to  arrange  any 
program  for  their  guests  or  to  spend  any  un- 

69 


BLUE  ANCHOR  INN 

necessary  time  worrying  about  their  enjoyment. 
Guests  should  be  treated  like  children,  and  made 
to  learn  to  enjoy  themselves.  Mrs.  Gilpin,  there- 
fore, having  retired  for  an  afternoon  nap,  and 
Gilpin  and  Halsey  having  elected  to  go  crabbing 
in  the  launch,  a  pastime  which  bored  Brooke  to 
death,  he  sent  them  off  together  with  his  bene- 
diction, and  picking  up  a  book  at  random  from 
the  table  in  the  hall,  departed  to  the  beach, 
where,  under  the  cool  shadow  of  a  one-time 
hotel,  you  could  hollow  out  a  couch  for  yourself 
in  the  sand  and  watch  the  sea  with  your  thumb 
in  the  book,  happy  in  the  thought  that  you 
could  read  when  you  wanted  to. 

Brooke  spent  the  afternoon  thus.  In  the  clear 
air  the  sea  was  a  solid  dark  blue,  as  if  it  were 
done  in  pastel,  and  extended  far  out,  unchanging 
in  its  tone,  to  the  ruled  horizon.  A  long  line  of 
shining  whitecaps  rode  in  and  burst  with  a  fine 
glorious  roar  as  far  to  right  and  left  as  he  could 
see.  The  ships  sailed  close  to  shore.  The  long, 
black  steamship  with  a  red  band  around  its  stack, 
bound  for  Boston,  left  a  dark  streak  of  smoke 

across  the  sky  and  disappeared  sidewise  over  the 

70 


BLUE  ANCHOR  INN 

horizon.  A  huge  seven-masted  schooner  was 
loafing  easily  in  the  mid  distance  as  though  it 
did  not  have  to  get  there  very  soon.  Numbers 
of  smaller  schooners  inched  along  with  similar 
disregard  of  time,  looking  very  trim  and  neat 
with  their  white  sails,  but  doubtless  loaded  with 
bituminous  coal.  The  sea  was  full  of  ideas 
and  things  going  on.  There  was  such  a  great, 
inspiring  expanse  of  it.  Here  was  not  the  shallow 
coquetry  of  the  babbling  brook,  nor  the  placid 
unsophistication  of  the  country  fields,  but  the 
force  and  poise  resulting  from  experience  with 
man,  the  elements,  and  the  heavens  them- 
selves. 

Brooke  was  revolving  these  things  in  his  mind 
toward  the  close  of  the  afternoon,  and  thinking 
what  an  everlasting  joy  the  unpeopled  beach 
was,  when  suddenly,  as  he  gazed  out  to  sea  with 
half-closed  eyes,  he  became  aware  of  some  one 
approaching.  He  looked  up  quickly  and  dis- 
covered a  white-clad  figure  that  was  Mrs.  Brooke. 
His  first  impulse  was  retreat.  He  might  have 
scrambled  to  his  feet  and  walked  rapidly  up  the 
beach  as  though  a  thought  had  just  struck  him, 


BLUE  ANCHOR  INN 

or  he  might  have  crawled  hastily  through  the 
piling  under  the  hotel  and  hidden  in  the  dark 
until  she  disappeared.  But  both  of  these  being 
undignified  and  somewhat  pointed,  he  decided  to 
stand  his  ground  and  await  developments.  She 
had  to  pass  directly  by  him  in  her  walk  up  the 
beach.  Had  it  been  on  a  city  street  he  might 
have  nodded  to  her,  and  deemed  it  sufficient,  but 
on  a  big  island  occupied  by  only  a  dozen  people 
the  meeting  was  an  event  deserving  of  fitting 
ceremony. 

As  she  came  within  conversational  distance, 
she  nodded  brightly,  and  called  out : 

"  How  do  you  do,  Mr.  Brooke  ?  Are  you 
writing  verses  about  the  sea?" 

"  No,"  he  replied,  "  not  about  the  sea." 

"  I  adore  this  wild,  uncivilized  place,"  she  ex- 
claimed conversationally.  "  It  is  so  primeval  and 
exhilarating." 

Brooke  nodded.  Of  course,  he  said  to  him- 
self, he  could  tell  the  instant  he  saw  her  immacu- 
late white  suit,  her  immaculate  white  pumps,  her 
white  gloves,  parasol,  veil,  and  all  the  trappings 

of  the  city,  that  she  loved  this  wild,  simple  life. 

72 


IT    SOUNDS    INTERESTING" 


BLUE  ANCHOR  INN 

She   was   now   almost  abreast  of   him,  and  he 
stood  up. 

"  All  this  is  very  delightful,"  he  said,  waving 
his  hand.  Then  he  executed  what  he  thought 
was  a  stroke  of  diplomacy. 

"  Won't  you  sit  down  ?  "  he  asked. 

She  looked  at  the  sand,  and  then  at  her  own 
spotless  attire. 

"  No,  I  thank  you.     It  seems  dirty." 

This  would  naturally  terminate  the  interview, 
but  it  didn't.  She  seemed  to  feel  that  some  re- 
turn of  his  courtesy  was  necessary. 

"  I  am  taking  a  constitutional  up  the  beach. 
Won't  you  come,  too?" 

He  looked  at  the  beach  and  then  at  his  attire. 
He  could  not  think  of  any  of  his  clothes  that 
would,  by  any  chance,  be  injured  by  his  walking 
up  the  beach. 

"  Thank  you,"  he  replied,  and  paused  for  some- 
thing truthful.  "  It  sounds  interesting." 

He  joined  her  thereupon,  and  strolled  on  up 
the  beach  with  her. 

"  We  have  had  so  much  clear  weather  of  late," 
he  said,  "  I  am  sure  it  will  rain  soon." 

73 


BLUE  ANCHOR  INN 

She  gave  this  idea  thought. 

"  I  dislike  rain.  A  rainy  day  at  the  seashore 
is  so  dismal." 

This  was  a  great  conversation !  The  distin- 
guishing quality  of  the  remarks  offered  so  far 
was  that  they  were  so  true.  Brooke  wondered 
if  she  too  were  not  just  a  little  overcome  by  the 
enormity  of  the  situation.  His  own  embarrass- 
ment was  profound.  Did  she  intend  to  tell  him 
she  was  his  wife  ?  If  not,  was  she  his  wife  ?  He 
looked  at  her  sidewise  for  some  distinguishing 
characteristic  in  her  that  would  bring  to  his  mind 
in  a  rush  the  picture  of  the  woman  he  had  mar- 
ried in  the  lawyer's  office  a  year  ago  ;  but  there 
was  nothing  about  her  that  induced  such  a  mem- 
ory, principally  because  his  mind  served  him  so 
ill  as  to  the  appearance  of  the  woman  he  had 
married.  This  person  walking  up  the  beach  be- 
side him  might  be  she,  or  might  not.  He  had 
no  means  of  deciding  that. 

Reason  enough  for  any  man  to  be  nervous  ! 
But  she  did  not  enter  the  dreaded  field  of  con- 
versation. In  fact,  she  appeared  pointedly  to 
avoid  any  topic  that  had  to  do  intimately  with 

74 


him  or  with  her,  until  presently  from  a  fear  that 
she  would  tell  him  she  was  his  wife,  he  worked 
himself  up  to  a  frenzy  of  curiosity  which  de- 
manded the  facts  in  the  case.  So  he  plunged 
boldly  ahead,  selecting  his  method  of  attack  with 
some  care. 

"  I  wonder,"  he  said,  with  apparent  innocence, 
"if  your  family  of  Brookes  and  my  family  of 
Brookes  are  connected  ?  " 

It  was  a  deadly  speech.  But  she  looked  him 
straight  in  the  eye. 

"  I  don't  know,"  she  replied,  with  plain  indif- 
ference. 

He  was  about  to  hit  the  wedge  another  whack. 

"  Perhaps  your  husband "  he  began. 

"  Oh,  dorit  you  think  they  are  perfectly  beauti- 
ful shells  ?  "  she  exclaimed  suddenly.  "  I  must 
have  some." 

She  walked  toward  the  sand  freshly  wet  by  the 
waves,  drawing  off  her  gloves  as  she  went.  He 
did  not  follow  her.  Searching  carefully  among 
the  bright  colored  little  shapes,  she  selected  sev- 
eral that  pleased  her  fancy,  and  returned  with  them 
carefully  all  tied  up  in  her  pocket  handkerchief. 

75 


BLUE  ANCHOR  INN 

She  was  pulling  on  her  gloves.  The  finger  of 
one  of  them  was  caught  by  a  ring.  If  it  had 
slipped  on  easily  she  would  have  had  the  glove 
buttoned  before  she  came  very  close  to  him.  As 
it  was  he  caught  sight  of  the  interfering  gold 
band  before  it  was  covered  up.  No  matter  what 
he  had  thought  before,  he  could  not  help  being 
startled  now.  It  was  his  own  seal  ring ! 


CHAPTER  VIII 

BROOKE'S  first  impulse  was  to  settle  the 
whole  matter  then  and  there.  She  was  his 
wife,  and  they  both  knew  it — so  why  dissemble  ? 
But  he  hesitated,  and  that  hesitation  lost  him  the 
opportunity — if  opportunity  it  was.  The  incident 
overwhelmed  him.  The  uncertainty  of  her  iden- 
tity had,  a  few  moments  before,  made  him  anxious 
to  know  and  have  it  over  with.  But  when  the 
actual  knowledge  came,  it  was  like  a  dash  of  cold 
water.  It  was  too  real.  He  could  not  bring 
himself  to  the  point  of  saying,  "You  are  my 
wife."  Why,  this  was  the  first  time  he  had  talked 
to  her.  His  whole  system  revolted  at  the  idea  of 
having  to  acknowledge  the  fact  yet.  He  would 
wait. 

So  he  walked  home  with  her  almost  in  silence, 
answering,  disjointedly,  her  conversation,  but  she 
had  no  idea  what  he  had  seen  and,  consequently, 
no  notion  of  the  unrest  within  him,  so  she  babbled 
on  about  various  things,  and,  if  she  noticed  his 

77 


BLUE  ANCHOR  INN 

abstraction  at  all,  she  preferred  to  ignore  it.  He 
left  her,  finally,  without  having  spoken  of  the 
ring. 

Whatever  Mrs.  Brooke's  plans  and  intentions 
may  have  been,  departure  from  the  island  did  not 
seem  to  be  included  among  them.  During  the 
next  week  she  and  her  uncle  became  a  part  of 
the  island  and  its  institutions.  If  any  one  ever 
thought,  or  hoped,  or  feared  (according  to  his 
disposition  in  the  matter)  that  they  would  leave 
shortly,  it  was  an  idle  idea.  For  the  island  suited 
them  exceedingly,  from  all  outward  appearances, 
and  when  Mrs.  Brooke  announced  that,  on  ac- 
count of  the  great  benefit  the  clear  sea  air  had 
been  to  her  uncle,  they  would  stay  on  as  long  as 
they  were  permitted,  no  one  was  surprised,  nor 
were  the  Gilpins  displeased.  Ned  Gilpin's  law 
practice,  never  too  voluminous,  dwindled  to  ob- 
scurity in  the  summer ;  and  the  chance  now  pre- 
sented to  scrape  a  little  revenue  out  of  the  house 
the  newcomers  occupied  was  extremely  accept- 
able. 

The  island  was  rather  a  sore  point  with  the 
Gilpins.  They  could  not  get  rid  of  it,  and  they 

78 


BLUE  ANCHOR  INN 

could  not  very  well  afford  to  hold  it.  The  taxes, 
while  light,  were  for  a  large  acreage,  and  sundry 
other  expenses  were  continually  arising,  which 
utterly  discouraged  and  demolished  any  system 
of  retrenchment  in  the  household.  Therefore, 
the  prospect  of  actual  rent  from  the  island  greatly 
increased  their  self-respect.  Mrs.  Brooke  re- 
ceived cordial  cooperation  in  her  idea  from  the 
proprietors,  in  spite  of  the  fact  that  they  sympa- 
thized with  Brooke.  But,  as  that  gentleman 
said,  he  could  go  away  whenever  he  saw  a  storm 
coming. 

Mr.  Still's  enjoyment  of  the  place  was  prodig- 
ious. He  was  like  some  mechanical  toy  turned 
loose  every  morning,  guaranteed  to  run  all  day. 
He  taxed  the  ingenuity  and  patience  of  every- 
body. If  he  saw  anybody  within  hailing  distance, 
he  trotted  up  gladly  and  captured  him  for  his 
very  own.  The  disjointed  conversations  he  held 
with  these  people  were  perfectly  satisfactory  to 
him.  Except  when  his  mind  demanded  instant 
information,  he  disregarded  any  pearls  that  might 
fall  from  his  companion's  lips,  finding  it  much 
easier  and  much  more  convenient  to  guess  at 

79 


BLUE  ANCHOR  INN 

their  import  and  continue  blandly  with  his  own 
train  of  thought. 

He  found  Captain  John  the  easiest  person  of 
all  to  flush,  and  spent  most  of  his  days  in  the 
company  of  that  amiable  individual.  The  cap- 
tain must  have  found  the  old  gentleman  excellent 
company,  for  he  would  talk  to  him  by  the  hour 
without  any  apparent  attempt  to  make  him  hear. 
And  Mr.  Still,  listening  with  placid  good  humor, 
had  just  as  fine  a  time  when  he  did  not  hear  as 
when  he  did. 

Their  keenest  form  of  pleasure  was  crabbing. 
The  old  gentleman  did  not  like  crabbing,  but  it 
was  a  new  experience,  and  was  full  of  strange 
excitements,  so  he  always  went  willingly  on  the 
days  when  the  duties  at  the  mayor's  office  would 
permit  that  gentleman  to  leave,  which  days  were 
frequent. 

Although  it  is  doubtful  if  Mr.  Still  ever  fully 
solved  the  principle  by  which  a  crab  is  elevated 
from  its  home  to  the  interior  of  the  boat,  yet  he 
went  through  certain  motions  with  the  utmost 
cheerfulness.  He  would  lower  his  piece  of 

meat  on  a  string  and,  when  told  by  the  cap- 
So 


BLUE  ANCHOR  INN 

tain,  bring  it  up  again.  Then  if  there  chanced 
to  be  an  actual  crab  clinging  to  it,  he  would 
carefully  remove  his  far-seeing  glasses  and  put 
on  his  near-seeing  ones,  lean  far  out  of  the 
boat,  drop  his  hat  into  the  water,  retrieve  the 
crab  and  hat  at  the  same  time  in  his  net  and 
deposit  them  both  dextrously  in  Captain  John's 
lap. 

"  Cross-eyed  fool,"  the  captain  would  there- 
upon remark  to  him  in  a  purely  conversational 
tone. 

Then,  overcome  with  chagrin,  Still  would 
study  the  anatomy  of  the  animal  seriously  for 
several  minutes,  selecting  the  very  best  place 
to  seize  it,  and,  grasping  it  firmly  about  the 
waist,  immediately  between  its  claws,  hold  it 
over  the  basket  and  wait  for  it  to  let  go.  He 
never  fully  solved  the  crab  problem  until  he 
discovered  one  day  in  the  captain's  boat  a  pair 
of  heavy  gloves,  reinforced  at  the  fingers  with 
leather. 

His  curiosity  about  all  things  pertaining  to 
Lugger  Island  was  insatiable.  If  he  divined,  from 

such  words  of  the  captain's  discourse  as  reached 

81 


BLUE  ANCHOR  INN 

the  inner  sanctuary  of  his  hearing  system,  that 
that  person  was  letting  fall  facts  about  the 
island,  or  the  inhabitants  thereof,  or  the  water 
surrounding  it,  or  the  heavens  above  it,  he 
seemed  to  compose  himself  to  listen.  And 
when  Mr.  Still  listened,  there  were  very  few 
ideas  that  escaped  him. 

Captain  John,  therefore,  was  able  to  unbosom 
himself  about  the  community  to  his  heart's  con- 
tent ;  and  if  Mr  Still  had  ever  found  the  infor- 
mation in  demand,  he  would  have  been  able  to 
state  at  once,  after  a  few  conversations  with  the 
mayor,  the  exact  price  paid  by  Mrs.  Gilpin  for 
her  hall  rug,  or  the  amount  her  servant  received 
per  month,  or  the  probable  income  of  her  hus- 
band, or  any  other  such  matter  of  public  interest, 
without  stopping  to  think.  The  captain  ex- 
plained fully  Mr.  Halsey's  presence  in  the 
house,  his  profession,  and  estimated  yearly 
earnings. 

"  Now,"  said  he,  "  this  Mr.  Brooke.  He's  a 
triflin'  young  feller.  Spends  his  time  inventin' 
concrete  piles  instead  o'  workin'  for  a  livin'. 

That  ain't  any  way  t*  get  along." 

82 


BLUE  ANCHOR  INN 

The  old  man  nodded  gravely. 

"  I  like  th'  ole  fashioned  young  man  that 
turns  out  at  sunup  and  does  a  day's  work  be- 
fore breakfast.  Why,  when  I  was  a  boy  I  used 
to  row  to  th'  far  end  o'  the  island  before  six  in 
th'  mornin',  and  that's  two  good  mile." 

Mr.  Still  instantly  began  to  delve  in  his 
pockets. 

"  Wait  a  minute,"  he  cried. 

Presently  he  brought  forth  a  dilapidated  note- 
book and  jotted  down  the  figure  the  captain  had 
named  in  the  first  unoccupied  spot. 

He  took  a  very  vivid  interest  in  useless  sta- 
tistics. His  greatest  joy  was  to  substitute  a 
piece  of  lead  for  the  meat  on  the  end  of  the 
crabbing  line  and  take  soundings  of  the  channel 
between  the  island  and  the  land,  all  of  which 
he  noted  carefully  in  various  irrelevant  spots  in 
the  book. 

"  Fiddlin*  ole  fule,"  Captain  John  would  in- 
form him  irritably,  in  a  low  tone.  "What 
makes  you  act  just  as  if  your  head  was  a 
sponge  ? " 

Mr.  Still  would  smile  good-humoredly  in  re- 
83 


BLUE  ANCHOR  INN 

turn,  and  drop  the  lead  in  the  water  with  a 
great  splash,  thereby  fanning  the  mayor's  irri- 
tability into  a  flame,  which  would  result  in  his 
seizing  the  line,  pulling  off  the  lead  and  re- 
placing it  with  a  piece  of  meat.  The  old  gentle- 
man, following  this  tactful  hint,  would  thereupon 
meekly  drop  the  meat  into  the  water  and  fish 
and  fish. 

He  was  experimenting  with  his  plumb-line 
one  afternoon  as  Brooke  was  walking  along  the 
shore.  Brooke,  who  had  supposed  they  were 
crabbing,  cast  many  a  puzzled  glance  in  their 
direction  until  he  saw  the  object  of  these  investi- 
gations was  to  ascertain  the  depth  of  the  water. 
As  the  boat  drew,  probably,  not  more  than  six 
inches,  and  the  water  was  at  least  twelve  or 
fourteen  feet,  this  performance  appeared  doubly 
ridiculous  to  him. 

He  wandered  on  down  the  shore.  There 
were  certain  little  blue  flowers  that  bloomed 
there,  which  he  was  intending  to  gather.  But 
their  day  seemed  to  have  passed,  for  he  found 
none.  Presently  he  came  suddenly  upon  the 

cove  which  was  the  anchorage  of  the  yawl.     The 

84 


BLUE  ANCHOR  INN 

cove  was  a  large  semicircular  bite  out  of  the 
land,  surrounded  by  trees,  and  having  rather 
steep  banks  instead  of  the  sandy  beach  that 
characterized  the  rest  of  the  island.  Here  the 
boat  lay  anchored  very  close  inshore,  so  close 
indeed  that  a  plank  had  been  laid  across  from  a 
fallen  tree  to  the  deck.  This  made  access  easy, 
and  the  young  man,  to  whom  boats  and  their 
fittings  were  always  a  subject  of  interest,  decided 
to  go  aboard. 

Reflecting  on  the  honesty  of  a  community 
that  would  allow  a  sailboat  to  lie  unmolested 
close  to  shore  without  going  aboard  and  taking 
everything  that  was  not  nailed  down,  he  stepped 
lightly  on  the  tree  and  was  about  to  run  along 
the  plank,  when  he  discovered  some  one  was  be- 
fore him  and  was  coming  up  the  companionway. 
When  she  turned  toward  him,  he  saw  it  was  Mrs. 
Brooke. 

He  started,  but  nodded  politely. 

"  I  am  so  glad  to  see  you,"  she  said,  "  being 
bored  to  death,  I  have  just  been  thinking  if  I 
saw  you  on  the  way  home  to-night  I'd  ask  you  to 
dinner." 

85 


BLUE  ANCHOR  INN 

The  prospect  rather  disturbed  him.  He  did 
not  reply.; 

"  Well,"  she  continued,  smiling,  "  will  you 
come  ?  " 

He  could  think  of  no  excuse. 

"  With  pleasure,"  he  said. 


86 


CHAPTER  IX 

I  FREQUENTLY   come  down  here  to  the 
boat  and  nap  in  the  afternoon,"  said  Mrs. 
Brooke.     "  The  silence  on  this  island  at  night  is 
so  deafening  I  scarcely  sleep  at  all." 

"  I  like  the  silence,"  replied  Brooke.  "  It 
soothes  my  nerves  and  mellows  my  disposition." 

She  shook  her  head. 

"  I  like  to  be  lulled  to  sleep  by  street-cars, 
automobile  horns,  fire-alarms  and  people  playing 
tunes  on  pianos.  It  sounds  like  human  beings. 
But  here  the  only  sound  you  hear  at  night  is  the 
vegetables  growing." 

"  A  purely  metropolitan  idea,"  commented  her 
companion.  "  What  time  is  dinner  ?  " 

This  ascertained  he  presently  left  her  and  re- 
turned to  Blue  Anchor  Inn  to  change  to  a  some- 
what more  festive  garb,  and  inform  his  hostess 
of  his  invitation.  This  bit  of  exciting  news  caused 
the  exchange  of  knowing  looks  all  around. 

87 


V 
BLUE  ANCHOR  INN 

"  Well,"  asked  Mrs.  Gilpin,  "  are  you  glad  or 
sorry  you  are  going  ?  " 

•'  I'm  always  sorry,  of  course,  to  miss  one  of 
your  excellent " 

"  Rubbish,"  said  she,  laughing.  "  Don't  evade 
the  question." 

"  There  is  no  reason  to  be  sorry,"  he  stated. 
"  Mrs.  Brooke  has  not  informed  me  that  she 
is " 

"  Your  wife." 

"  Exactly.  And  until  she  does,  I  may  be  in- 
different about  it." 

"  You  may,"  observed  Mrs.  Gilpin,  "  but  you 
won't." 

Mrs.  Brooke  was  sitting  on  the  front  porch  of 
her  cottage  when  he  arrived.  She  had  on  a  light 
summery  dress,  conspicuous  for  its  perfect  white- 
ness. There  never  was  such  a  clean  and  un- 
mussed  person  as  she.  She  moved  about  and 
lounged  in  her  chair,  and  did  all  the  things  other 
people  do,  but  her  dress  still  retained  its  original 
spruce  air  of  having  been  donned  the  moment 
before.  Brooke  approved  of  her  white,  well- 
shaped  neck,  her  round,  bare  arms,  and  her  gen- 

88 


BLUE  ANCHOR  INN 

eral  freshness,  which  was  like  a  newly-plucked 
bunch  of  flowers. 

At  the  table  there  were  four.  Opposite  Mrs. 
Brooke  was  her  uncle,  who,  after  his  coat  collar 
had  been  turned  right  side  out,  his  necktie 
coaxed  down  to  the  bottom  edge  of  his  collar, 
and  a  length  of  iron  chain  extracted  from  his 
pocket,  presented  a  tidy  appearance.  Brooke 
was  frightened  at  the  idea  of  having  to  converse 
with  this  formidable  person,  but  made  up  his 
mind  to  make  the  most  strenuous  effort  possible. 
Opposite  him  sat  the  young  Miss  Grey,  Mrs. 
Brooke's  companion.  He  had  never  seen  her  at 
close  range  before,  and  had  to  be  presented  to 
her.  She  was  very  pleasant  and  pretty  and 
quiet. 

Mrs.  Brooke's  table  was  simply  a  reflection  of 
her  own  personality.  She  took  a  great  pride  in 
having  it  irreproachable.  The  dishes  and  linen 
and  table  accessories  she  carried  on  the  yawl 
were  well  appearing  enough  to  be  a  credit  to 
any  household.  Mrs.  Gilpin  had  said  of  her 
that  in  the  two  weeks  she  had  been  on  the  island 
she  had  learned  more  about  the  food  problem 

89 


BLUE  ANCHOR  INN 

than  they  would  in  the  next  five  years.  She 
had  canvassed  the  island  gardens,  and  found  a 
person  who  raised  asparagus  and  peas  and  beets 
of  extraordinary  quality.  On  the  main  shore 
she  discovered  the  proper  place  to  go  for  ber- 
ries, chickens,  beef  and  a  hundred  things  the 
Gilpins  had  purchased  directly  from  a  grocery 
at  the  point  of  railroad  hesitation  where  Gilpin 
took  the  train  for  the  city.  Therefore  Brooke 
enjoyed  a  very  good  dinner  that  night  in  spite 
of  interruptions  in  the  way  of  conversation  from 
the  amiable  Mr.  Still 

For,  as  soon  as  the  old  gentleman  had  his 
napkin  safely  tucked  into  his  collar,  it  became 
apparent  that  he  intended  to  assume  the  burden 
of  entertaining  the  guest.  The  guest  perceived 
this  tendency  with  dismay. 

"  Mr.  Brooke,"  said  the  old  gentleman,  "  I 
understand  from  my  friend  the  mayor  that  you 
have  patented  a  concrete  pile." 

Brooke  hesitated.  He  wished  to  be  easy  and 
affable,  yet,  at  the  same  time,  the  paramount 
consideration  was  to  be  audible.  He  filled  his 

lungs. 

90 


BLUE  ANCHOR  INN 

"The  mayor  was  correct,"  he  shouted,  very 
red  in  the  face. 

Mrs.  Brooke  smiled. 

"  Modulate  it,"  she  said,  when  the  echoes  had 
died  away.  "  Be  firm,  but  not  brutal." 

He  laughed. 

"  I  didn't  want  him  to  miss  anything,"  he  said, 
a  little  sheepishly. 

"  If  he  is  interested  he  watches  your  lips.  If 
he  is  very  much  interested  he  brings  out  his 
little  telephone." 

Brooke  thereupon  talked  in  more  comfortable 
tone  and  explained  one  or  two  things  about  his 
invention  to  the  old  gentleman.  He  made  his 
explanation  brief  and  general  and  of  such  a  na- 
ture as  he  conceived  would  be  intelligent  to  the 
lay  mind.  But  his  companion  was  by  no  means 
satisfied  with  superficial  description.  He  wanted 
to  get  at  details.  With  juvenile  persistence, 
backed  up  by  a  mind  thirsting  for  statistical  in- 
formation, he  egged  the  young  man  on  until  at 
last  they  got  to  the  stage  where  Brooke  found 
himself  explaining  things  with  a  knife  and  a 
fork  and  the  pepper  shakers.  Not  to  be  outdone, 


BLUE  ANCHOR  INN 

Mr.  Still  presently  brought  out  his  little  tele- 
phone and  most  of  the  time  had  it  so  close  to 
the  young  man's  lips  that  nourishment  was  im- 
possible. 

Brooke  explained  to  him  the  advantages,  in 
the  first  place,  of  the  concrete  pile  over  the 
wooden  pile,  being,  in  general,  durability  and 
greater  bearing  power.  The  concrete  pile  is 
practically  indestructible.  The  bearing  strength 
of  a  pile  (all  this  the  young  man  telephoned  to 
Mr.  Still)  is  made  up  of  a  great  many  component 
forces,  the  least  of  which,  unlike  the  post  or 
column  in  the  building,  is  its  bearing  at  its  base, 
and  the  greatest  the  friction  of  the  earth  on  its 
sides. 

It  must  then  be  very  apparent  that  this  factor 
is  by  no  means  constant,  as  the  pile  is  frequently 
surrounded  by  loose  sand  or  by  water,  which 
offer  little  friction.  It  would  therefore  be  pos- 
sible for  one  pile  to  sustain  a  weight  of  ten  tons, 
while  another  of  the  same  length  and  thickness 
would  hold  up  but  five  tons.  Brooke's  idea  had 
been  to  make  the  pile  depend  more  on  the  bear- 
ing at  its  base.  He  had  therefore  given  his  pile 

92 


BLUE  ANCHOR  INN 

more  horizontal  surface  at  that  point  so  it  would 
have  the  effect  of  a  huge  pin — head  down  rather 
than  a  huge  pin — point  down.  Having  arrived 
at  this  conclusion,  the  rest  was  a  simple  matter. 

The  pile  was  made,  as  all  concrete  piles  are,  by 
pouring  the  mixture  into  a  hollow  tube.  It  was 
then  subjected  to  pressure  until  a  great  knuckle 
developed  at  its  foot,  which  gave  it  some  eight 
or  nine  times  the  bearing  power.  And  that  was 
Brooke's  pile.  Mr.  Still  devoured  all  this  expla- 
nation like  food  and  drink,  and  reviewed  the  dis- 
covery from  twenty  different  angles.  It  was 
keen  enjoyment  for  him  to  find  a  great  expanse 
of  brand  new  facts,  the  existence  of  which  he  had 
never  known  before,  and  rush  in  pell-mell,  gath- 
ering right  and  left  like  a  child  picking  butter- 
cups. 

Brooke  was  not  so  devoid  of  humor  as  to  let 
his  enthusiasm  run  entirely  away  with  him.  He 
was  perfectly  aware  of  the  fact  that  while  he  was 
giving  the  old  gentleman  the  time  of  his  life,  the 
others  were  not  enjoying  the  dissertation  with 
equal  enthusiasm.  Mrs.  Brooke  listened  only  oc- 
casionally, and  made  side  remarks  to  Miss  Grey, 

93 


BLUE  ANCHOR  INN 

commiserating  herself  for  having  to  sit  at  her 
own  table  and  endure  such  dinner  conversation. 
Miss  Grey  agreed,  but  at  such  times  as  she  was 
not  conversing  with  Mrs.  Brooke,  listened  to  her 
opposite  neighbor,  and,  if  she  did  not  find  the 
subject  edifying,  at  least  she  was  entertained  by 
its  exponent. 

At  length  the  dinner  was  over  and  Mr.  Still, 
having  gorged  himself  with  information,  was  re- 
lieved of  his  telephone,  and  when  that  instrument 
had  been  put  away  so  that  he  would  know  again 
where  to  find  it,  was  provided  with  a  tall  pitcher 
of  water  and  sent  to  bed. 

When  it  was  moonlight  all  the  inhabitants  of 
the  island,  save  the  permanent  citizens,  sought 
the  beach,  and  sat  in  all  sorts  of  uncomfortable 
places  for  the  fun  of  watching  the  moon  on  the 
waves.  Brooke  hardly  expected  his  hostess  to 
agree  to  any  such  suggestion,  involving  as  it  did 
such  sartorial  dangers ;  but  she  did  accept  it 
readily,  and  threw  him  a  steamer  rug,  which, 
when  they  arrived  at  the  beach,  solved  all 
problems. 

Presently  they  found  themselves  propped  up 
94 


BLUE  ANCHOR  INN 

against  a  sand-bank,  reclining  at  ease  on  the  rug. 
There  was  a  fine  largeness  to  the  night.  The 
long  beach  had  that  clean  whiteness  as  if  it  had 
been  dusted  with  sugar.  The  dark  shadows  were 
uncompromisingly  dark.  The  logs  of  driftwood 
lying  on  the  sand  took  on  new  shapes,  as  of  liv- 
ing things.  The  old  life-boat,  half  buried  in  the 
beach,  was  like  a  specter  craft  plowing  her  way 
through  some  phantom  sea,  and  who  could  say 
the  austere,  forbidding  hotel,  the  depths  of  whose 
silent  shadows  no  eye  could  fathom,  was  not  the 
festive  scene  of  some  ghostly  reveling  ? 

Brooke  looked  down  at  the  woman  sitting  be- 
side him.  She  was  as  uncertain  and  elusive  as 
the  other  phantom  shapes  that  populated  the 
beach.  What  was  her  game  ? 

Why  did  she  not,  when  she  had  the  golden  op- 
portunity, obtain  her  divorce  from  him  and  be 
free  ?  What  complication  had  arisen  meanwhile 
that  made  her  return  to  him,  still  his  wife  ?  There 
was  a  link  in  the  chain  somewhere  that  he  had 
missed.  One  thing  he  felt  certain  of.  She  did 
not  know  that  he  was  aware  of  her  identity.  This 
enabled  him  to  bide  his  time. 

95 


BLUE  ANCHOR  INN 

She  turned  in  a  moment  and  found  him  look- 
ing at  her. 

"  Well,"  she  said  smiling,  "  what  do  you  think 
of  the  view  ?  " 

"  Good,"  he  replied. 

She  clasped  her  hands  behind  her  head  with  a 
luxurious  air  of  indolence. 

"  Thank  you,"  she  said,  daringly. 

He  looked  up  in  surprise. 

"  Are  you  responsible  for  the  view  ?  " 

"  As  much  of  it,"  she  vouchsafed,  glancing  at 
him  out  of  the  corners  of  her  eyes,  "  as  you  were 
looking  at." 

He  laughed.     She  began  to  be  interesting. 

"  I  didn't  realize,"  he  said  presently,  "  how  I  was 
staring." 

"  Oh,  I  don't  mind.  I  like  to  be  looked  at — of 
course." 

When  she  smiled  the  corners  of  her  mouth 
lifted  only  a  little.  She  had  an  amused  air,  as  if 
she  had  withdrawn  from  herself  and  were  watch- 
ing the  conversation  between  them  from  a 
distance. 

"That  is  a  sign  you  have  a  clear  conscience," 
96 


BLUE  ANCHOR  INN 

he  suggested.  This  brought  the  talk  a  little  too 
near  his  thoughts,  but  he  wondered  if  he  could 
displace  her  self-possession. 

But  she  laughed. 

"  Or  a  clear  complexion,"  she  amended. 

There  was  no  apparent  reply  to  this.  Her 
easy,  nonchalant  way  of  taking  care  of  herself 
entertained  him  exceedingly.  He  could  not  help 
thinking,  since  this  was  his  wife,  he  was  glad  she 
was  so  human,  and  that  her  wits  were  always 
about  her.  She  was  attractive — more  attractive 
than  most  women.  Perhaps,  he  thought,  as  time 
wore  on,  as  they  grew  to  know  each  other  better, 
and  therefore  to  understand  each  other.  .  .  . 
Well !  there  was  no  limit  to  the  wonders  time 
could  work. 

She  glanced  up  at  him  once  more. 

"  A  penny  for  your  thoughts,"  said  she. 

"  They  are  entirely  too  undeveloped  as  yet," 
he  replied,  "  to  be  for  sale." 


97 


CHAPTER  X 

WHEN   Brooke   returned   to   Blue   Anchor 
Inn   at  about   eleven   o'clock,   he  found 
Halsey  sitting  up  reading  a  muck-raking  maga- 
zine.    Halsey  looked  over  his  glasses. 

"  Nice  time  o'  night  for  an  old  married  man  to 
come  rolling  in,"  he  observed. 

Brooke  smiled  placidly. 

"  My  youth  is  imperishable,"  he  explained, 
extracting  a  cigarette  from  his  companion's 
open  box. 

"  Have  an  enjoyable  time  in  the  society  of  the 
— widow  ?  " 

"  Very.     Why  do  you  call  her  a  widow  ?  " 

Halsey  swung  his  glasses  on  their  wide  black 
string. 

"  The  term  per  se  is  one  of  endearment,  and 
distinction — and  sympathy.  But  in  due  course 
of  time  you  will  be  able  to  eliminate  the  neces- 
sity for  this  last  item." 

98 


BLUE  ANCHOR  INN 

"  What  do  you  mean?  " 

"  I  mean  that  your  condescension  is  increas- 
ing. You  allow  the  lady  to  eat  out  of  your  hand 
almost  whenever  she  wants  to." 

Halsey  merely  meant  this  to  be  a  serious  state- 
ment of  fact,  but  it  made  Brooke  laugh. 

"A  most  ungallant  remark,"  he  said. 

"Not  in  the  least.  The  lady  in  question, 
whether  for  reasons  of  expediency,  or  necessity, 
or — you  will  pardon  the  suggestion — affection, 
has  assumed  the  rdle  of  aggressor.  I  therefore 
consider  it  no  discourtesy  to  refer  to  her  actions 
from  that  standpoint." 

"  But  what  reasons  of  expediency  or  necessity  ? 
— the  third  thing  you  mentioned  being  an  ab- 
surdity." 

"Legal  reasons,"  responded  Halsey.  "The 
sincerity  and  force  of  your  marriage  may  have 
been  questioned  in  court.  Perhaps  the  phrase- 
ology of  the  will  was  such  that  some  one  may  be 
able  to  prove  that  a  merely  nominal  marriage 
will  not  fulfil  its  conditions." 

"  I  see." 

• 

"  I  said, perhaps"  went  on  the  other,  anxious 
99 


BLUE  ANCHOR  INN 

to  present  the  case  in  all  its  phases.  "It  is  a 
possibility  I  present  for  your  consideration.  My 
personal  opinion  is  that  she  is  lonely,  and  being 
legally  united  to  you,  has  come  to  look  over  the 
situation  before  attempting  to  sever  the  vincula 
matrimonii" 

"That's  a  preposterous  situation." 

"  On  the  contrary,  it  is  a  very  sensible  idea. 
If  there  is,  by  any  chance,  a  possibility  that  you 
two  would  be  happier  together  than  apart,  why 
separate  ?  " 

"True  enough,"  assented  the  other  thought- 
fully, "  but  as  regards  her  own  temperament, 
would  her — let  us  call  it  womanly  modesty,  for 
want  of  a  better  term — allow  her  to  appear  to 
pursue  any  man  ?  " 

"  Any  man,  no.     But  her  own  husband  ?  " 

Brooke  rose,  and  strode  up  and  down  the 
room. 

"  Was  ever  any  man  in  such  a  position  ? " 
he  said,  and  then  began  to  laugh.  "  I  feel  as  if 
I  were  being  angled  for — like  a  speckled  fish  in  a 
stream." 

There  was  a  silence. 

100 


"  She  is  a  very  pleasant  woman,"  observed 
Brooke,  presently. 

"  Cuisine  satisfactory  ?  " 

"  Never  knew  better." 

"  Did  she  have  something  cold  for  you  when 
you  came  back  from  the  beach  ?  " 

"  What  a  fellow  you  are  for  deducing  things. 
You  bet  she  did.  Tiny  sandwiches  with  a  slice 
of  tomato  within,  and  shandy-gaff." 

"  Perfect  treasure,"  murmured  the  other. 

Brooke  looked  at  him  hard. 

"  Roger,"  said  Halsey  at  length,  peering 
through  his  glasses,  "  best  wishes,  old  man. 
Go  after  her,  vi  et  armis." 

His  companion  produced  his  watch  and  began 
winding  it  thoughtfully,  but  did  not  reply. 

Halsey  picked  up  his  muck-raking  magazine, 
preparatory  to  reading  more  about  the  iniqui- 
ties of  a  huge  monopoly  which  appeared  to  be 
sapping  the  life  blood  of  the  nation  without  any 
one,  up  to  this  time,  being  aware  of  it  but  the 
editors  of  this  particular  magazine. 

"By  the  way,"  said  Brooke,  on  the  bottom 

step    of   the  stair,   "since    you    have  bee'n  so 

101 


BLUE  ANCHOR  INN 

curious  about  my  goings  and  comings,  what 
keeps  you  out  of  your  bed  at  such  an  unearthly 
hour?" 

The  other  finished  reading  his  paragraph. 

"  I  was  observing  a  few  social  amenities." 

"  Chatting  pleasantly  with  the  moon  ?  " 

"  I — a — made  a  call,"  vouchsafed  the  other,  a 
little  embarrassed. 

"  The  saints  preserve  us  !     Where  ?  " 

Halsey  began  cutting  the  pages  of  the  maga- 
zine with  exaggerated  care. 

"  You  having  one  of  the  ladies,  what  was  there 
left?" 

"  Miss  Grey  1 " 

The  other  nodded. 

"  Help  ! "  cried  Brooke. 

He  sank  into  a  chair. 

"  How  long  has  this  been  going  on  ?  "  he  asked 
severely. 

"  Four  festive  occasions,  thus  far,"  responded 
Halsey,  reluctantly. 

"The  social  gayety  of  this  place  makes  a 
fellow's  head  ache.  Well,  Herbert,  I  wish  you 

good  luck." 

102 


BLUE  ANCHOR  INN 

He  gathered  up  his  coat  and  started  up-stairs 
again. 

"  Is  this  young  person — a  lady  ?  "  he  asked. 

The  other  took  up  his  book. 

"My  dear  Roger,  am  I  a  gentleman ? " 

Brooke  raised  his  eyebrows  and  went  on  up 
the  stair. 

"  Good-night,"  he  said. 

"  Good-night." 

As  Brooke  was  dressing  in  the  morning  he 
saw  old  Mr.  Still  stepping  blithely  along  in  the 
direction  of  the  mayor's  residence.  Regularity 
at  his  meals  was  not  one  of  the  old  gentleman's 
strong  points.  He  was  apt,  when  anything  was 
on  his  mind,  to  rise  with  the  first  crack  of  dawn, 
blunder  into  his  clothes  by  a  process  of  falling 
over  furniture  and  dropping  shoes  and  toilet 
articles  until  the  whole  house  was  wide  awake, 
attack  the  refrigerator  and  walk  obliviously  down 
the  street  with  half  a  cantaloup  in  one  hand  and 
a  piece  of  Edam  cheese  in  the  other. 

This  morning  he  found  Captain  John  seated 
on  his  door-step  reading  with  interest  day  before 

yesterday's  paper. 

103 


BLUE  ANCHOR  INN 

"  John,"  he  said  with  easy  good  humor,  "  get 
your  boat." 

<l  Hey,"  cried  the  captain,  still  reading  his 
sheet. 

"  Get  the  boat.  We're  going  on  a  sightsee- 
ing trip." 

"  Oh,  's  thet  so  ? "  responded  the  captain, 
into  the  midst  of  his  paper. 

"  What' re  you  reading?" 

"  Paper." 

"  Let  me  read  it  while  you  get  the  boat." 

The  mayor  laid  down  the  paper  in  surprise. 
Still  picked  it  up  and  was  soon  deep  in  the  news. 

"  Well  1 "  ejaculated  the  other. 

"  Tears  t'  me  's  if  the  number  of  crazy  people 
is  increasin',"  he  said  at  length,  and  went  after 
the  boat. 

Mr.  Still  devoured  the  news  while  Captain 
John  was  bringing  the  craft  around  to  the 
wharf.  Just  as  he  was  folding  the  paper  up 
preparatory  to  returning  it,  his  eye  fell  on  a 
small  item.  This  he  read  with  interest,  and 
producing  his  pocket-knife,  cut  it  out  and  stored 

it  in  his  pocket. 

104 


BLUE  ANCHOR  INN 

"  John,"  he  said  pleasantly,  as  he  sat  in  the 
boat,  "  let's  you  and  me  go  look  at  the  place 
where  the  railroad  used  to  come  across  to  the 
island." 

"  All  right,"  grumbled  the  mayor,  "  and  after 
thet  I'll  pint  out  th'  place  where  th'  whale 
swallered  the  train." 

This  biting  piece  of  sarcasm  was  lost  on  Mr. 
Still. 

"  Was  it  built  on  piling  ?  "  he  asked,  not  re- 
ferring to  the  whale. 

"  They  built  it  on  mos'  everything,"  acceded 
Captain  John.  "They  built  it  on  pilin'  and 
thet  rotted.  They  built  it  on  stones  which  every 
now  and  agin  disappeared  in  the  mud.  And 
fin'ly  when  the  whole  thing  washed  away  and 
some  engineer  fellows  told  'em  they'd  have  to 
sink  cay-sons  and  build  stone  abutments,  they 
give  the  whole  idee  up." 

"  I  want  to  see  the  piles,"  remarked  the  old 
gentleman,  whose  interest  in  this  subject  was 
thoroughly  aroused. 

"  Well,  all  you  got  t'  do  is  t'  look,"  responded 

the  mayor,  and  bumped  the  boat  into  the  head 

105 


BLUE  ANCHOR  INN 

of  a  pile  just  below  the  surface.  Poor  old  Mr. 
Still's  head  bounced  forward  as  if  it  were  going 
to  come  off  at  the  neck,  and  his  hat  and  glasses 
fell  down  into  the  boat. 

"  See  that  one  ?"  inquired  the  captain,  sympa- 
thetically. 

"  Why,  no,"  returned  the  old  gentleman, 
simply. 

Captain  John  bumped  into  another. 

"  See  that  one  ?  "  he  asked,  as  his  companion 
slid  off  the  seat  and  occupied  a  lowly  position  on 
the  floor  of  the  boat. 

"  I  think,"  said  he,  "  since  they  are  coming 
along  so  fast,  you  had  better  stop  rowing  while 
we  watch  them  go  by." 

The  captain,  absolutely  pleased  with  the  suc- 
cess of  his  humor,  stopped  rowing.  Still 
patiently  searched  for  his  spectacles  and  hat, 
and  putting  them  on,  with  no  show  of  irritation, 
poked  gravely  at  the  pile  under  water  with  the 
blade  of  an  oar. 

"  'Pears  t'  be  made  o'  wood,  don't  it  ? "  de- 
manded Captain  John,  soberly.  He  had  never 

seen  a  person  with  such  aggravated  symptoms 

1 06 


BLUE  ANCHOR  INN 

of  insanity  as  Mr.  Still  exhibited,  and  he  felt  it 
incumbent  on  him  to  essay  humorous  speeches 
on  the  subject. 

"  Seen  all  you  want  t',  Aunt  Susan  ?"  he  asked 
at  length. 

But  Still  had  not.  They  rowed  up  and  down 
along  the  piling.  Every  now  and  again,  to  the 
captain's  complete  disgust,  Still  would  stand  up 
in  the  boat  and  drop  the  lead  into  the  water  with 
all  the  enthusiasm  of  a  boy  dropping  a  penny  in 
the  slot.  These  soundings  he  entered  carefully 
in  his  note-book  in  the  first  vacant  spot. 

"  What's  the  object  o'  all  thet?"  demanded  the 
other  on  one  of  these  occasions. 

"  How  should  I  know  how  deep  it  was  if  I 
didn't?" 

Captain  John  determined  to  test  his  insanity,  to 
see  if  it  were  acute  or  merely  chronic. 

"And  then  what'll  you  do  with  the  informa- 
tion ?  " 

"  John,"  said  the  old  gentleman  in  a  man-of- 
the-world  tone,  "  suppose  I  were  to  rebuild  the 
trestle  ?  " 

Captain  John  picked  up  his  oars. 
107 


BLUE  ANCHOR  INN 

"  You  ain't  got  many  more  years  o'  freedom," 
he  vouchsafed,  and  pulled  back  toward  the 
wharf. 

That  evening  when  Mrs.  Brooke  was  remov- 
ing from  the  old  gentleman's  pockets  the  day's 
haul  of  old  pulleys,  pieces  of  rope,  scrap-iron  and 
other  useful  junk,  she  discovered  the  clipping  he 
had  taken  from  Captain  John's  newspaper.  He 
explained  to  her  that  he  had  brought  it  home  for 
her  to  read.  It  bore  the  date  line  of  a  city  in  the 
far  West,  and  read  somewhat  as  follows : 

"  CHANGES  HER  MIND — ALWAYS  A 
WOMAN'S  PRIVILEGE 

"  Mrs.  Roger  Brooke,  of  Philadelphia, 
who  came  West  with  the  intention  of 
securing  legal  separation  from  her  hus- 
band, has  found  after  mature  considera- 
tion that  she  does  not  want  a  divorce, 
and  has  left  for  the  East  again  in  search 
of  her  husband." 

Mrs.  Brooke  smiled.  Then  she  struck  a  match 
and  holding  the  clipping  by  one  corner,  burned 
it  up. 


1 08 


CHAPTER  XI 

MISS  GREY  sat  on  the  gunwale  of  the  yawl, 
gazing  out  to  sea  and  swinging  her  bare 
feet  in  the  water  overside.  It  was  a  biting  hot 
day.  Not  a  cord  on  the  boat  was  stirred  by 
breeze  of  any  sort.  The  only  cool  thing  she  had 
heard  of  all  that  day  was  the  water  in  which  she 
paddled. 

A  step  sounded  on  the  shore  behind  her. 

"  May  I  come  aboard  ?  "  said  a  brisk  voice. 

She  looked  dubiously  at  the  unprotected 
members,  as  if  she  would  reprove  them  for  their 
indiscretion,  and  turned  her  head  with  a  radiant 
smile. 

"  I  don't  know,  Mr.  Halsey,"  she  cried  over 
her  shoulder.  "  Listen." 

She  splashed  her  feet  in  the  water. 

He  stood  still  in  embarrassment. 

"  They  say  it's  next  to  godliness,"  he  ventured 
at  length. 

She  laughed  aloud  at  him. 
109 


BLUE  ANCHOR  INN 

"  I  think  I  will  walk  back  through  the  pines," 
he  observed,  "  and  call  on  you  in  a  few  min- 
utes." 

"Say  five,"  she  suggested. 

Whereupon  he  departed  with  unruffled  dignity 
and  returned  again  at  the  appointed  time  to  find 
her  sitting  on  the  deck  house  with  her  feet, 
decently  clad  in  white  stockings  and  pumps, 
stuck  out  impudently  before  her. 

"  The  day,"  he  said,  "  has  been  hot." 

"  And  so  have  I." 

"  I  hope  you  are  refreshed  after  your — 
your " 

"  Bath  ?  " 

"  Oh,  no,"  he  replied,  having  revised  his  ideas 
on  the  subject.  "  Some  term  less  utilitarian  and 
more " 

"  More  ?  " 

"  More  nymph-like." 

"  Thank  you,  Mr.  Halsey." 

"  What  then  would  you  suggest  ?  " 

"  I  should  suggest  '  bath.'  " 

He  nodded  gravely. 

"Having    then    argued  ourselves  around  a 
no 


BLUE  ANCHOR  INN 

circle,  tell  me  whether  any  limit  has  yet  been  set 
to  your  stay  on  Lugger  Island." 

"  So  far  none.  I  grieve  that  I  cannot  give 
you  better  news." 

"  True,"  returned  he,  with  a  weighty  facetious- 
ness,  "  You  could  not  give  me  better  news." 

She  laughed. 

"  You  had  a  guest  to  dinner  last  night,"  he 
said  at  length. 

She  looked  at  him  curiously. 

"  Perhaps  before  you  leave  the  island,"  rumi- 
nated he,  "  he  may  become  a  part  of  your  house- 
hold permanently." 

She  surveyed  the  bows  on  her  shoes  with  in- 
terest. Then  she  looked  up  brightly. 

"Is  there  such  a  possibility?"  she  asked, 
naively. 

"  Well,  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Brooke — I  mean  Mr. 
Brooke  and  Mrs.  Brooke — are  seeing  a  great  deal 
of  each  other." 

She  made  a  little  mouth. 

"  Don't  you  think  it  is  strange,"  he  went  on, 
as  if  endeavoring  to  interest  her  with  a  new  idea, 

"  that  they  should  both  be  named  Brooke  ?  " 

in 


BLUE  ANCHOR  INN 

"  Why,"  she  said1,  with  no  intention  to  deceive, 
"  I  think  one  of  them  might  very  well  have  been 
named — say,  Stream." 

She  looked  at  him  with  a  cheerful,  impu- 
dent smile.  He  did  not  quite  understand  her 
banter. 

"  I  wish  to  say  that  you  are  very  exasperat- 
ing," he  said  at  length.  "  I  ask  you  for  informa- 
tion, and  I  get  nothing  but  dimples." 

"  After  all,  Mr.  Halsey,  if  there  were  a  choice 
between  the  two " 

She  smiled.  He  polished  his  glasses  reflect- 
ively. 

"  Well,  if  it  were  reduced  to  that "  he  be- 
gan. 

"  Yes " 

"I  think  I  might  dispense  with  the  informa- 
tion." Which  only  goes  to  show  that  some 
witnesses  cannot  be  browbeaten. 

"  I  never  knew  such  a  hot  day,"  she  exclaimed^ 
at  length. 

"  What  can  you  expect?"  he  replied,  promptly. 
"  Do  you  realize  that  in  the  month  of  June  the 
sun  is  nearer  to  us  than  to  the  people  living  on 

112 


BLUE  ANCHOR  INN 

the  Equator  ?  We  must  naturally  expect  to  have 
tropical  weather." 

"  But  that  doesn't  make  it  any  more  comfort- 
able." 

"  Of  course  not.  However,  isn't  it  interesting 
to  consider  that  the  people  in  the  tropics,  who 
are  wearing  linen  suits  and  cork  helmets,  are  not 
receiving  any  more  heat  from  the  sun  than  we 
are  at  this  moment  ?  Now,  isn't  that  a  surpris- 
ing fact  ?  " 

"  Is  it  true  ?  "  she  said. 

"  Of  course  it  is  true.    It  is  an  established  fact." 

She  smiled  pleasantly. 

"I  don't  know  why  you  don't  bore  me  to 
death,  Mr.  Halsey,"  she  said.  "Your  mind  is 
all  full  of  facts  with  briars  on  them.  And  you 
keep  sticking  them  into  me  until  I  haven't  any 
peace  of  mind  left." 

"  But  they  are  instructive  pieces  of  information. 
You  ought  to  think  about  such  things." 

"  I  don't  want  to  think  about  things  that  don't 
interest  mec  When  I  see  a  pretty  green  leaf,  I 
don't  want  to  have  you  tell  me  as  you  did  the 
other  day  the  thing  which  makes  it  green  is  a 


BLUE  ANCHOR  INN 

fluid  called  chlorophyl,  or  something  like  that, 
which  is  deadly  poison." 

"  That's  just  what  makes  the  world  interesting," 
he  cried,  eagerly.  "  That  is  finding  out  exact  in- 
formation about  the  things  around  you,  which  is 
necessary  for  every  intelligent  being.  Or  else 
what  is  the  use  of  having  a  mind  ? " 

She  tied  a  knot  idly  on  the  end  of  her  hand- 
kerchief and  then  untied  it  again. 

"  Of  course  you  understand,"  she  said,  "  that 
that  point  of  view  takes  all  the  human  interest 
out  of  life.  There  are  certain  things,  like  hydro- 
chloric acid,  for  instance,  that  you  can't  consider 
except  in  a  scientific  way.  But  you  don't  want 
to  be  made  to  consider  every  flower  as  a  chem- 
ical formula,  and  the  condition  of  the  weather  as 
a  problem  in  astronomy." 

"  It  trains  your  mind,"  he  insisted. 

"  I  know,"  she  replied,  "  and  I  suppose  I  am 
going  right  on  until  the  end  of  time  allowing  you 
to  practice  vivisection  on  my  intellect,  and  graft 
into  it  a  thousand  foreign  ideas  that  have  no 
place  there." 

He  looked  uncomfortable. 
114 


BLUE  ANCHOR  INN 

"  Of  course,"  he  said,  stiffly,  "  if  my  conversa- 
tion does  not  entertain  you,  I  can  make  an  effort 
to  discuss  other  things.  I  have  simply  been  talk- 
ing about  subjects  which  were  of  interest  to  me." 

She  laid  her  forefinger  for  an  instant  on  his 
sleeve. 

"  No,  no,"  she  cried,  "  I  did  not  wish  you  to 
take  it  that  way.  Of  course  I  like  what  you  talk 
about.  To  prove  it,  I  want  to  know  now  why 
this  white  paint  has  all  the  network  of  little  lines 
running  through  it  ?  " 

He  glanced  at  the  paint  on  the  gunwale  and 
his  eye  brightened. 

"  Why,"  he  began,  eagerly,  "  it  is  because 
they  used  zinc  in  the  paint  instead  of  white  lead." 

And  she  listened  through  the  remainder  of  the 
dissertation  with  an  amiable  toleration,  and 
parted  from  him  later  almost  with  the  conviction 
that  she  had  enjoyed  herself. 

"  I  don't  see  the  use,"  remarked  Mrs.  Gilpin, 
at  the  dinner  table  that  night,  "  of  my  having 
two  men  as  guests  if  they  always  run  off  and 
leave  me  with  no  one  to  amuse  me  but  my  hus- 
band." 


BLUE  ANCHOR  INN 

Halsey,  who  had  never  given  the  subject 
thought  before,  felt  a  smiting  of  his  conscience. 

"  I'm  sorry,"  he  said.  "  I  fear  I  have  neglected 
my  hosts." 

Brooke  looked  up  cheerfully. 

"  That's  not  the  way  to  proceed  with  this  con- 
versation, Herbert,"  he  interrupted.  "You'll  get 
stung  sure  as  fate  if  you  do.  What  you  should 
say  is,  '  Mrs.  Gilpin,  it  is  very  sweet  of  you  to 
notice  our  absence.'  " 

Mrs.  Gilpin  laughed. 

"  As  though  I  could  help  noticing  it,"  she  ex- 
claimed. 

Gilpin  leaned  back  in  his  chair. 

"  But  isn't  Halsey  marrying  rather  beneath 
him  ?  "  he  inquired  gravely. 

"  Tut,  tut,"  cried  the  person  in  question, 
"  aren't  you  rather  jumping  at  conclusions  ?  " 

Gilpin's  round  face  beamed  with  delight. 

"  What  I  meant,"  he  went  on,  "  is,  won't  it  be 
rather  a  preposterous  situation  for  Halsey  here 
to  marry  the  lady's  maid  of  the  wife  of  our  friend 
Brooke." 

Halsey  grew  very  earnest. 
116 


"  To  begin  wfth,"  he  announced,  "  Miss  Grey 
is  no  ordinary  lady's  maid.  I  mean  by  that  she 
comes  of  a  good  family.  But  both  her  mother 
and  father  died  when  she  was  very  young,  and 
she  has  to  support  herself.  She  does  not  im- 
press me  as  having  the  air  of  a  lady's  maid." 

"  Certainly  not,"  said  Gilpin,  humbly. 

"  But  what  puts  every  one  in  this  match-mak- 
ing humor  ?  "  demanded  Brooke. 

Mrs.  Gilpin  made  a  mouth. 

"  Match-making,"  she  cried,  disdainfully.  "  It 
isn't  worth  the  trouble.  This  affair  of  yours  is 
the  most  hopelessly  unromantic  thing  I  ever 
heard  of.  When  it's  all  settled,  there  won't  be 
any  engagement,  or  trousseau,  or  reception,  or 
things  to  eat,  or  anything  exciting.  I  call  that 
a  poky  old  affair." 

"  Also,"  observed  Gilpin,  his  spherical  face 
wreathed  in  smiles,  "  there  won't  be  any  presents." 

"  Miss  Grey,"  Mrs.  Brooke  was  saying  about 
the  same  time,  "  what  about  this  Halsey  man  ?  " 
"  I  don't  know,"  replied  the  girl,  cautiously. 

"  What  do  you  think  ?" 

117 


BLUE  ANCHOR  INN 

"  Well,  I  don't  want  to  hurt  your  feelings,  dear, 
but  I  should  class  him  as  a  bore." 

Miss  Grey  nodded. 

"  Of  course  he  is." 

"  Good-bye,  then,"  Mrs.  Brooke  cried.  "  There 
are  few  women  who  can  resist  marrying  a  bore." 

"  Oh,  no  ! "  the  girl  exclaimed  incredulously. 

"  It's  the  truth.  It  seems  to  be  the  nature  of 
the  female  of  the  species.  If  she  sees  that  a  man 
is  putting  himself  out  to  make  her  uncomfortable, 
she  takes  a  joy  in  allowing  herself  to  be  pun- 
ished." 

"  Mr.  Halsey  is  so  interested  in  the  things  he 
says." 

"  Of  course.     Bores  are  always  sincere." 

The  girl  smiled. 

"  But  he  appears  to  be  making  an  earnest 
endeavor  to  interest  you — to  enable  you  to  see 
things  the  same  way  he  sees  them.  He  has 
made  it  a  practice  to  pick  up  information  on 
every  subject ;  so  that,  if  a  man  on  the  witness- 
stand  says  the  buttons  on  his  coat  are  bone 
buttons,  he  can  contradict  him  and  say  they  are 

celluloid." 

118 


BLUE  ANCHOR  INN  • 

"  And  he  bullies  you  into  listening  ?  " 

"Yes,"  she  replied,  meekly,  "I  suppose  he 
does." 

Mrs.  Brooke  folded  up  her  embroidery 

"  I  can  see  the  end  of  this  story  without  read- 
ing the  last  chapter,"  she  announced. 

"  No,  indeed,"  cried  Miss  Grey,  laughing. 
"  My  husband  must  be  a  man  that  is  congenial." 

"  That's  what  we  all  say — theoretically !  But 
in  practice,  if  a  man  comes  along  who  is  not 
congenial  but  has  the  perseverance  to  bully  the 
woman  into  it,  she  takes  him — with  thanks." 

"  And  is  sorry." 

"  Oh,  perhaps  not.  A  conscientious  woman 
appears  to  derive  a  certain  amount  of  righteous 
satisfaction  from  enduring  the  conversation  of 
her  husband." 

The  girl  threaded  her  needle  carefully. 

"  Still,"  she  observed,  "  I  don't  want  to  marry 
Mr.  Halsey." 

"  That  is  another  bad  sign,"  said  Mrs.  Brooke. 


119 


CHAPTER  XII 

ON  the  following  day  Miss  Grey  was  mak- 
ing herself  a  shirt-waist,  which,  like  all 
shirt-waists  in  process  of  construction,  had  to  be 
finished  before  lunch  time.  As  she  and  Mrs. 
Brooke  sat  on  the  porch  of  their  house,  Halsey 
came  into  view  and  approached  them  with  long 
strides. 

"  Good-morning,"  he  said,  with  his  usual  di- 
rectness. "  Are  you  going  walking  with  me, 
Miss  Grey  ?  " 

This  was  characteristically  awkward,  leaving 
poor  Mrs.  Brooke,  as  it  were,  stranded  on  a  lee 
shore. 

"  Can't  do  it,"  replied  the  girl. 

"  Do  go,  Miss  Grey  ;  the  sea  air  will  do  you 
good,"  urged  Mrs.  Brooke  promptly,  with  a 
covert  smile. 

"  I  must  finish  this  shirt-waist." 

"  Take  it  with  you,"  he  said. 
1 20 


BLUE  ANCHOR  INN 

"  No-o.  Couldn't  we  take  the  walk  to-mor- 
row?" 

"  I  have  something  I  want  to  say  to  you  to- 
day." 

Miss  Grey  hesitated.  Then  she  folded  up  her 
sewing. 

"All  right,  I'll  go." 

She  turned  to  Mrs.  Brooke. 

"Won't  you  come?"  she  suggested,  and  the 
corners  of  her  mouth  turned  up  just  a  trifle. 

Halsey  set  his  teeth. 

"  No,  thank  you,"  replied  Mrs.  Brooke. 

Whereupon  the  young  man  nodded  to  her  and 
proceeded  to  carry  off  Miss  Grey  immediately, 
before  there  could  be  any  opportunity  for  recon- 
sideration. 

She  was  excited  and  curious  to  know  why  he 
wanted  to  see  her  so  urgently.  He  did  not 
talk  to  her  at  first,  but  stalked  along  solemnly 
beside  her.  He  was  a  difficult  person  to  be 
natural  with  unless  he  were  talking,  and  she 
always  went  ahead  cautiously,  with  a  care- 
ful eye  for  hidden  rocks  in  his  disposition. 

This  gave  him  a  certain   control   of    the   situ- 

121 


BLUE  ANCHOR  INN 

ation — which  she  did  not  actually  resent,  but 
which  puzzled  her.  She  knew  that  simply  in 
order  to  be  comfortable  she  would  always  hand 
over  the  reins  to  him  when  she  was  in  his  com- 
pany. 

They  walked  along  the  streets  between  the 
tumble-down  houses,  and  when  they  came  to  one 
particularly  withered  specimen  of  a  residence 
which  had  settled  so  on  its  foundations  that  there 
were  no  horizontal  or  perpendicular  lines  at  all 
in  it,  he  stopped,  and  they  went  in. 

"  Let's  sit  here,"  he  observed,  indicating  the 
dingy  stair. 

It  did  not  seem  natural,  but  she  would  have 
been  surprised  if  he  had  suggested  anything 
else.  She  seated  herself  on  the  bottom  step 
without  comment 

"  I  have  been  considering  our  talk  of  yester- 
day," he  began  ;  "  about  my  style  of  conversa- 
tion, you  know." 

She  nodded. 

"  So  that  was  what  was  on  your  mind,"  she 
thought. 

"  I    don't   understand,    quite,"  he    went    on. 
122 


BLUE  ANCHOR  INN 

"  Don't  all  people  talk  about  only  the  things 
which  they  are  thinking  of  ?  " 

"  But  all  people,"  she  said  smiling,  "  don't 
think  about  the  same  things." 

"  I  understand  that  all  people  are  not  alike. 
But  in  what  way  do  I  seem  peculiar  ?  " 

"  Well,  for  instance,"  she  said  slowly,  "  I  am 
wearing  a  crimson  necktie.  Suppose  I  said  I 
thought  that  shade  was  particularly  becoming  to 
me.  It  wouldn't  be  an  especially  graceful 
speech  on  my  part,  but  as  I  think  it  I  should 
be  apt  to  say  it.  What  would  you  reply  to 
that?" 

He  considered  a  moment. 

"  I  suppose  I  should  be  apt  to  say  that  that 
shade  was  made  with  the  dye  from  cochineal 
insects." 

"  Exactly,"  she  cried.  "  But  the  average  man 
would  probably  have  told  me  it  was  becoming 
on  account  of  the  contrast  it  made  with  my  hair." 

"  Is  that  a  better  style  of  conversation  ? "  he 
demanded,  incredulously. 

"  Most  minds  seem  able  to  assimilate  it  with 

less  effort,"  she  replied. 

123 


"But,  in  my  case,  do  you  wish  me  to  talk  to 
you  like  that  ?  " 

She  laughed. 

"  I  am  afraid  you  couldn't." 

He  frowned. 

"  Then — what  is  the  remedy  ?  Not  to  talk  at 
all?" 

"  Certainly  not.  I  am  not  attempting  to 
change  the  leopard's  spots.  Whenever  you  wish 
to  talk  to  me  " — she  thought  of  Mrs.  Brooke  as 
she  said  it — "  I  shall  always  enjoy  anything  you 
have  to  say.  You  must  never  take  any  of  my 
criticisms  too  seriously." 

He  was  silent  for  a  moment. 

"  I  am  very  glad,"  he  said.  "  You  are  the 
only  girl " 

He  hesitated.  She  looked  at  him  curiously, 
wondering  what  this  talk  was  leading  to. 

"The  only  girl — what  shall  I  say — whom  I 
ever  enjoyed  conversing  with.  There  seems  to 
be  a  sympathy  between  us.  And  when  I 
thought  last  night  that  perhaps  I  was  peculiar 
and  I  wearied  you " 

"  Nonsense,"  she  said. 
124 


BLUE  ANCHOR  INN 

"  When  I  thought  that,  I  could  not  wait  until 
I  saw  you  and  found  out." 

She  nodded.  He  was  looking  straight  into 
her  eyes.  Then  he  reached  forward  and  took  her 
hand.  She  felt  everything  was  going  too  fast. 
She  must  do  something  to  divert  him.  With  a 
deft  movement  she  pushed  her  watch  through 
her  belt  and  it  fell  on  the  wooden  step.  That 
broke  the  spell — and  at  the  same  time  the  crystal 
of  the  watch. 

He  instantly  forgot  what  he  was  going  to  say 
and  reached  for  the  watch.  In  a  second  he  had 
the  back  of  it  open  and  was  examining  its  in- 
terior with  the  aid  of  a  pocket  magnifying  glass. 
Having  pronounced  that  uninjured,  he  delicately 
and  skilfully  removed  the  crystal  from  his  own 
watch  and  replaced  it  on  hers.  When  they  went 
out  from  the  house  upon  the  hot  street  ten  min- 
utes later,  he  had  apparently  forgotten  their 
previous  conversation. 

Brooke  saw  them  come  out  of  the  house,  and 
smiled  reflectively  as  he  followed  slowly  down 
the  street.  He  was  strolling  idly  toward  the 
sea,  wondering  what  marvelous  force  of  nature 

125 


BLUE  ANCHOR  INN 

made  it  possible  for  the  hot  air  to  remain  so  ab- 
solutely stationary ;  he  was  suddenly  surprised 
to  hear  his  name  called,  and,  turning  round,  dis- 
covered old  Mr.  Still  trotting  along  after  him. 
It  took  but  one  glance  to  see  that  he  was  in  the 
midst  of  a  statistical  convulsion.  His  hat  was 
thrust  on  the  back  of  his  shining  head,  his  face 
was  red  with  excitement,  his  hands  trembled,  and 
all  the  pores  of  his  skin  were  open  ready  to  re- 
ceive information.  He  grasped  Brooke  firmly  by 
the  coat  lapel. 

"Are  you  busy  this  morning?"  he  asked, 
breathlessly. 

The  young  man  tried  to  think  of  something, 
but  the  effort  was  a  dismal  failure,  so  he  replied 
in  the  negative. 

"  I  want  you  to  go  on  a  little  expedition  with 
me,"  exclaimed  Still,  thereupon,  very  much  ex- 
cited at  the  prospect.  "  I  have  found  the  place 
where  the  piling  of  the  old  railroad  trestle  is 
still  standing.  I  want  you  to  go  with  me  and 
see  it." 

"  I've  seen  it,"  replied  Brooke. 

"You  would  like  to,"   exclaimed  the  other, 
126 


BLUE  ANCHOR  INN 

briskly.  "Excellent!  It  will  interest  you. 
Right  in  your  line.  I  love  to  see  a  young  man 
enthusiastic  about  his  business." 

"  I'm  on  a  vacation  now,"  objected  the  other. 

"  Certainly.  Just  like  a  vacation.  I'll  enjoy 
it  myself.  Suppose  we  start  before  it  gets  hot." 

Brooke  looked  at  the  incorrigible  old  gentle- 
man and  laughed.  It  was  almost  miraculous  the 
way  he  managed  to  hear  only  the  things  which 
fitted  in  with  his  own  desires. 

"  How  do  we  get  there  ?  "  he  inquired,  deeming 
further  objection  futile  in  the  face  of  such  odds. 

"We'll  take  John's  boat,"  exclaimed  Mr.  Still 
briskly.  "  There  it  is." 

He  pointed  to  the  lumbering  rowboat  now  in 
process  of  blistering  on  a  glaring  bosom  of  the 
channel.  He  might  well  have  passed  for  Charon 
indicating  the  ferry  across  the  Styx. 

Even  a  less  acute  intellect  than  Brooke's 
would  instantly  have  divined  who  was  expected 
to  propel  the  boat.  The  young  man  glanced 
about  for  relief.  Just  at  that  moment  Willy  hap- 
pened to  be  approaching. 

"  Oh,  Willy,"  he  cried,  "are  you  busy?" 
127 


BLUE  ANCHOR  INN 

Approaching  thus  on  the  spur  of  the  moment, 
Willy  lost  his  presence  of  mind  too,  and  an- 
swered in  the  negative. 

"  Suppose  you  take  Mr.  Still  and  me  in  the 
launch  up  to  the  old  trestle." 

Willy  looked  dubiously  at  Mr.  Still. 

"  Captain  John  says  it's  going  to  storm,"  he 
said,  tentatively. 

"  Nonsense,  you  rascal,"  cried  Brooke  ;  "  that 
can't  happen  before  afternoon,  if  at  all." 

The  boy  relented. 

"  Sure  thing.  I'll  take  you  up.  Mr.  Gilpin 
says  youse  was  to  have  the  put-put  whenever 
you  wanted  it." 

They  therefore  followed  the  mechanician  to 
the  dock  where  the  launch  lay.  Willy  stepped 
aboard. 

"  Get  on  to  the  smoothness  of  the  water,"  ob- 
served he,  pointing  to  the  mirror  surface  of  the 
channel.  "That's  the  camm  that  precedes  the 
storm.  The  hot  weather  is  going  to  bust  some 
time  to-day." 

"Let  her  bust,"  observed  Brooke,  stepping 
aboard. 

128 


BLUE  ANCHOR  INN 

"  You  better  stand  on  the  old  party's  ear  and 
break  it  to  him  gentle  that  one  more  hawser  on 
his  yawl  won't  do  no  harm." 

"Is  that  so?"  demanded  the  young  man, 
pricking  up  his  ears. 

"  Surest  thing  you  know.  They  got  one  little 
hook  out  in  the  mud,  and  a  one  inch  line  made 
fast  to  a  tree  ashore.  That  lets  her  stern  swing 
all  around  the  dock." 

"I'll  tell  him,"  said  Brooke. 

He  went  forward  to  where  the  old  man  was 
playing  solitaire  with  a  jumble  of  figures  selected 
from  the  more  legible  spots  in  his  impossible 
note-book. 

"Let's  go  down  by  your  yawl,"  the  young 
man  observed,  "  and  put  an  extra  fastening  on 
her." 

"Certainly  she's  extra  fast,"  returned  Still, 
with  his  nose  in  his  book.  "I've  been  in  her 
before." 

Brooke  shook  him  by  the  shoulder  to  gain  his 
attention. 

"Your  yawl,"  he  began,    pointing   south  to 

where  she  lay,  determining  to  give  him  the  idea 

129 


BLUE  ANCHOR  INN 

in  sections.  The  old  man  jumped  excitedly  to 
his  feet. 

"  No,  not  that  way.  This  way,  this  way  1 "  he 
cried,  pointing  north  to  where  the  trestle  lay. 
"  There.  You  can  see  what's  left  of  it  on  the 
shore." 

"I  know.  I  understand,"  said  Brooke  pa- 
tiently persistent,  "  but  it  is  going  to  storm  this 
afternoon." 

Whether  the  old  man  thought  Brooke  was  try- 
ing to  formulate  an  excuse  for  not  going,  or 
whether  his  hearing  was  really  not  up  to  the 
mark  that  day,  it  was  impossible  to  tell.  At 
any  rate  his  train  of  thought  could  not  be  shifted 
over  to  any  other  subject  than  the  old  railroad 
trestle. 

"  Go  ahead,"  said  Brooke  to  Willy.  "  We'll 
go  down  when  we  come  back  and  take  a  rope 
from  the  yawl's  stern." 

Old  Mr.  Still  had  a  capacity  for  childlike  en- 
joyment that  was  positively  marvelous.  As 
they  approached  the  spot  where  the  trestle  had 
been  he  was  like  an  eight  year  old  boy  coming 
in  sight  of  the  circus  tent.  He  plied  Brooke 

130 


BLUE  ANCHOR  INN 

with  questions  until  the  young  man's  throat 
ached  with  shouting.  How  much  did  it  cost 
to  drive  a  wooden  pile?  How  many  could  one 
machine  put  in  in  a  day  ?  Were  they  practical 
in  salt  water?  Then  having  pumped  the  well 
dry  on  that  subject,  he  switched  around  and 
asked  the  same  questions  all  over  again  about 
concrete  piles,  and  every  once  in  a  while  he 
would  bring  out  his  crazy  note-book  and  smother 
it  with  figures  while  Brooke  got  his  wind. 
Willy  was  almost  exhausted  with  joy  at  the  per- 
formance. 

"Tell  it  to  him,  Mr.  Brooke,"  h«  would  mutter. 
"  Blow  it  down  his  ear.  You  got  the  crowd  with 
you." 

It  is  doubtful  if  this  would  have  encouraged 
Brooke  had  he  heard  it,  but  during  the  conver- 
sation it  began  to  dawn  on  him  that  the  old 
man,  besides  simply  storing  his  mind  with  hard 
facts,  really  comprehended  the  purport  and 
meaning  of  them.  He  could  refer  back  to  what 
Brooke  had  told  him  before,  and  connect  appar- 
ently irrelevant  information  in  a  surprisingly 
convincing  way.  Brooke  wondered  if  this  were 


BLUE  ANCHOR  INN 

merely  the  abnormal  brilliancy  of  a  failing  mind, 
or  whether  Still  really  was  more  rational  than  the 
world  believed  him. 

At  any  rate,  they  went  five  times  up  and  down 
the  former  course  of  the  trestle,  poking  at  ends 
of  rotten  piling,  examining  the  remains  of  old 
stone  abutments  and  figuring  out  the  probable 
method — or  lack  of  method — by  which  the  track 
had  been  supported.  When  the  young  man 
found  his  companion  was  quite  sanely,  even  if 
somewhat  strangely,  interested  in  the  proposition 
as  an  engineering  accomplishment,  he  entered 
into  the  discussion  of  it  with  some  show  of  enthu- 
siasm. In  fact,  in  picking  out  the  old  supports 
here  and  there,  and  observing  the  bad  state  of 
the  whole  affair,  the  thing  became  to  him  a  po- 
tential problem  as  well  as  a  matter  of  history. 
No  man  in  any  line  of  endeavor  ever  saw  a  bad 
example  of  his  own  particular  work  without  the 
spark  of  egotism  in  him  rising  to  point  out  the 
proper  way  of  doing  it  next  time. 

Mr.  Still,  with  his  almost  juvenile  intuition, 
discovered  the  line  of  thought  in  Brooke's  mind 
and  followed  the  scent  eagerly.  Brooke,  for  his 

132 


BLUE  ANCHOR  INN 

part,  needed  only  the  starter.  After  that  he  was 
soon  deep  in  the  exposition  of  his  idea  for  a  hy- 
pothetical trestle  across  the  channel.  This  natu- 
rally involved  the  use  of  his  own  pile.  The  ex- 
planation took  half  an  hour  in  the  blazing  sun, 
while  Willy  ran  the  launch  around  in  circles. 
At  the  end  of  that  time  Mr.  Still  had  half  a  dozen 
sketches  on  scraps  of  paper  showing  the  proper 
method  of  accomplishing  this  wonderful  feat. 
He  studied  over  these  documents  assiduously  for 
a  while. 

"  How  much  will  it  cost  ?  "  he  demanded  in 
his  hollow  voice. 

The  young  man  took  thought,  and  named  a 
sum.  His  companion  immediately  became 
stricken  with  an  impenetrable  deafness,  and  no 
amount  of  shouting  could  apparently  get  the  fig- 
ures into  his  head.  They  had  to  be  written  out 
on  paper  before  he  could  comprehend  them.  He 
studied  the  amount  for  a  moment. 

"  Would  your  firm  build  it  for  that  ?  " 

The  other  looked  at  him  in  surprise. 

"Yes,"  he  said  good-humoredly,  "  with  a  little 
more  for  contingencies." 

133 


BLUE  ANCHOR  INN 

"How  much?" 

"  Go  to  it.  Keep  right  after  him,  kiddo,"  said 
Willy  to  the  septuagenarian. 

Brooke  laughed.  He  mentioned  a  figure  ;  but 
the  old  man's  ear  passages  seemed  to  be  useless 
for  receiving  sums  of  money.  His  companion 
therefore  wrote  it  on  one  of  the  sheets  of  paper, 
but  to  his  surprise  this  did  not  satisfy  the  other, 
who  beat  about  the  bush  a  little  more,  evidently 
seeking  for  something  else. 

At  last  a  suspicion  flashed  across  Brooke's 
mind.  He  seized  a  piece  of  paper  and  wrote, 
"  I  propose  to  build  the  trestle  for  twenty-five 
thousand  dollars,"  dated  it  and  signed  his  name. 

The  old  man  instantly  gathered  up  all  the 
papers  in  a  tight  little  roll  and  stuffed  them  in 
his  pocket.  Brooke,  with  a  queer  expression  on 
his  face,  told  Willy  to  make  for  the  wharf. 


134 


CHAPTER  XIII 

THE  afternoon  started  with  the  rumble  of 
thunder  in  the  distance.  The  four  people 
on  the  porch  at  Blue  Anchor  Inn  scanned  the 
perfect  blue  heavens  inquiringly.  Captain  John, 
who  had  just  been  down  to  the  shore  to  drag  his 
heavy  boat  up  on  the  bank,  paused  as  he  went 
by  to  pass  a  few  remarks  on  the  state  of  the 
weather. 

"  Coming  plum  out  o*  th'  north,"  he  prophe- 
sied, pointing  to  as  clear  a  bit  of  heaven  as  it 
had  ever  been  their  privilege  to  witness.  "  I've 
just  been  down  to  take  a  few  extra  hitches  on 
my  dory.  Better  get  your  launch  made  fast, 
Mr.  Gilpin.  This  ain't  goin'  to  be  an  ordinary 
summer  rain." 

"How  about  the  yawl?"  asked  Brooke,  re- 
membering what  Willy  had  said. 

"  I'm  on  my  way  down  t'  see  her  skipper,"  re- 
sponded the  mayor.  "  I  seen  Mrs.  Brooke  goin' 
down  along  the  shore  a  few  minutes  ago.  Had 

135 


her  white  sunshade  with  her  's  usual.  I  reck'n 
she  won't  take  her  aft' noon  nap  in  th'  yawl, 
though,  when  she  hears  the  wind  and  thunder 
startin'." 

"  We  must  ask  her  in  here  when  she  returns," 
said  Mrs.  Gilpin.  "  I  know  she  will  be  fright- 
ened. I  will  go  over  presently  and  ask  Miss 
Grey  too.  We  will  have  a  regular  thunder  and 
lightning  party." 

She  glanced  mischievously  at  Halsey. 

"Are  we — urged  to  attend  ?"  asked  that  gen- 
tleman. 

"That's  what  the  party's  for,"  she  replied, 
pleasantly. 

Thereupon  they  all  trooped  down  to  the  boat 
landing  and  made  the  launch  fast,  putting  her 
leather  cushions  away  in  the  lockers,  covering 
her  engine  and  steering  gear  with  the  tarpaulins, 
and  making  her  generally  shipshape  and  tidy  to 
withstand  the  coming  storm.  Captain  John  pro- 
nounced the  arrangements  satisfactory. 

The  sky  in  the  north  was  now  a  dull  gray 
instead  of  the  clear  blue  of  a  few  minutes  before. 
There  was  a  steady  rumble  of  far  distant  thunder, 

136 


BLUE  ANCHOR  INN 

apparently  coming  from  behind  the  gray  clouds. 
The  air  was  no  longer  still  and  hot,  but  a  brisk, 
cool  breeze  had  sprung  up,  which  chopped  the 
smooth  water  into  little  waves  and  made  the 
launch  rock  at  her  moorings. 

"  How  long  before  the  storm  will  be  here?'* 
asked  Brooke  of  the  captain,  looking  north  at 
the  lowering  clouds. 

"  In  ten  minutes  nobody'll  need  a  sunshade," 
he  replied.  "That  storm  is  comin'  down  the 
coast  at  a  two-forty  gait." 

Brooke  stopped  doubtfully  at  the  edge  of  the 
landing. 

"  I  think,  fellows,"  he  said,  "  I  shall  take  a  stroll 
down  the  island." 

Gilpin  grinned. 

"  That's  right,"  he  urged  ;  "  save  the  women 
first." 

The  other  laughed. 

"  Want  to  come  along  ?  "  he  asked. 

"  No,  thanks,"  cried  Gilpin ;  "  we  have  wives  of 
our  own  to  look  after." 

And  Brooke  went  on  alone. 

The  evidences  of  a  real  storm  became  more 
137 


BLUE  ANCHOR  INN 

pronounced  as  he  proceeded.  The  gray  cloud 
in  the  east  was  now  jet  black.  Across  this 
actinic  flashes  of  white  light  sprang  from  sky  to 
sea.  The  distant  thunder  was  like  the  steady 
roar  of  a  huge  battle.  The  blue  sky  was  pushed 
steadily  back  toward  the  afternoon  sun,  and 
already  the  trees  were  casting  long  shadows  in 
the  saffron  light.  The  whole  sea  to  the  north  was 
lead,  and  it  seemed  as  if  rain  was  pouring  down 
at  the  horizon. 

He  saw  he  would  have  to  hurry  to  get  Mrs. 
Brooke  back  dry-shod  to  the  house  before  the 
storm  broke.  The  cold  gale  that  blew  now 
almost  tasted  of  rain.  He  looked  across  toward 
the  sea  and  saw  the  rain  coming.  There  was  no 
sun.  A  darkness  like  dusk  surrounded  him. 
The  birds  scurried  through  the  trees.  A  mo- 
mentary lull,  and  great  torrents  of  water  de- 
scended all  about  him. 

Instantly  his  clothing  was  soaked.  In  almost 
incredible  time  the  ground  all  about  him  ran 
rivulets  of  muddy  water.  His  progress  was  im- 
peded by  wet  branches,  wet  clothes,  wet  under- 
brush, water  everywhere.  The  lightning  flashed 

138 


BLUE  ANCHOR  INN 

and  the  thunder  banged  overhead.  For  the  mo- 
ment he  was  terrified  and  stood  perfectly  still  in 
his  tracks. 

Then  the  consciousness  that  he  was  there  for 
a  purpose  aroused  him  and  he  pushed  ahead. 
When  he  came  out  of  the  trees  to  the  shore  of 
the  channel  he  was  astounded.  Great  whitecaps 
rode  from  shore  to  shore,  and  the  waves  threshed 
the  banks  like  the  sea  itself.  He  looked  toward 
the  yawl,  and  it  was  drifting  stern  foremost  away 
from  shore  out  to  the  rough  water ! 

For  an  instant  he  paused  in  doubt.  Was  she 
aboard,  or  had  she  returned  at  the  approach  of 
the  storm  ?  He  thought  he  should  have  seen 
her  had  she  returned.  At  any  rate  it  was  too 
great  a  chance  to  run.  If  she  were  there  he 
would  never  forgive  himself  for  not  making  the 
effort  to  save  her.  He  decided  to  go  aboard, 
lady  or  no  lady. 

This  was  more  easily  said  than  done,  however. 
He  noted  that  the  boat  was  drifting  rather  slowly, 
her  anchor  dragging  smartly  in  the  mud.  He 
would  have  time  to  run  around  the  cove  and 
catch  her  as  she  rounded  the  tiny  peninsula  that 

139 


BLUE  ANCHOR  INN 

jutted  out  from  the  southern  end.  This  he  did, 
tearing  off  his  coat  as  he  ran.  When  he  came  to 
the  point  of  land  the  boat  was  bearing  down  upon 
it,  running  a  little  faster  now,  bow  foremost. 

He  perceived  that  it  would  come  within  thirty 
feet  of  him,  and  had  some  slight  hope  that  it 
would  ground  there,  but  with  the  heavy  sea  run- 
ning there  was  not  much  chance  of  it.  He 
kicked  off  his  shoes,  waded  out  into  the  water, 
and  as  the  boat  came  along,  plunged  into  the 
waves.  The  sea  was  so  high,  and  the  water  so 
unruly  that  he  was  unable  to  make  any  headway 
against  it.  The  waves  rolled  him  over  when 
they  struck  him,  unused  as  he  was  to  such 
aquatics.  If  it  had  not  been  for  the  lively  current 
he  would  never  have  reached  the  yawl.  As  it 
was  it  carried  them  both  along  together  until 
presently  he  was  swimming  along  under  her 
bows.  More  from  fear  of  being  run  down  by 
the  bow  of  the  boat  than  with  any  laudatory 
desire  at  that  moment  to  be  of  service  to  any  one, 
he  reached  up  and  grasped  the  ratlines,  and  with 
one  mighty  heave  drew  his  dripping  form  up  on 

the  bowsprit. 

140 


BLUE  ANCHOR  INN 

For  a  moment  he  lay  panting  on  the  long  tim- 
ber, revolving  in  his  mind  what  to  do  now  he  was 
there.  It  was  not  more  than  five  or  six  hundred 
yards  from  where  they  were  to  the  southern  point 
of  the  island,  and  after  that  the  open  roaring  sea. 

He  must  act  quickly.  He  could  feel  by  the  ac- 
celerated motion  of  the  yawl  that  the  anchor  had 
dragged  entirely  free.  In  a  few  minutes  they 
would  have  passed  out  of  the  channel.  Scram- 
bling hastily  down  the  bowsprit,  he  began  to  at- 
tack the  wet  knots  of  the  stops  on  the  jib.  He 
did  not  even  try  to  find  out  if  Mrs.  Brooke  was 
aboard,  so  deep  was  he  in  the  scheme  of  getting 
enough  steerageway  on  the  craft  to  run  her 
ashore  on  the  island  before  she  could  drift  out 
into  the  open  sea. 

The  sail  finally  unstopped,  he  drew  it  up 
briskly  to  the  masthead.  So  fast  had  the  boat 
been  drifting,  it  was  now  a  matter  of  nip  and 
tuck  as  to  whether  he  should  be  able  to  get  her 
nose  around  in  time. 

"Tightest  tooting  I  ever  saw,"  he  muttered, 
and  making  three  jumps  of  it  to  the  wheel,  threw 

her  helm  hard  over. 

141 


BLUE  ANCHOR  INN 

The  bow  began  to  creep  over  slowly  to  the 
port.  At  the  same  time  the  point  of  the  island 
came  nearer  and  nearer.  The  companionway 
hatch  opened,  and  a  wet,  disheveled  figure 
emerged.  He  might  have  seen  concern  and 
amazement  in  her  face,  but  he  did  not  even  look 
at  her. 

"  Hold  that  wheel  over  hard,"  he  shouted 
roughly,  and  made  a  dash  for  the  little  jigger 
sail  abaft  the  wheel.  He  whipped  out  his  knife 
and  cut  the  stops  from  end  to  end. 

"  We'll  make  it,"  he  cried,  exultantly.  It  was 
the  work  of  an  instant  to  draw  up  the  sail  and 
make  fast  the  halyards.  The  bow  of  the  little 
yawl  swung  sharply  around,  and  she  made  for 
the  shore. 

"  Hold  the  wheel,"  he  bellowed  over  the  roar 
of  the  storm,  and  started  for  the  bow,  ready  to 
jump  ashore  with  a  line  as  soon  as  she  struck 
the  ground. 

It  looked  as  if  they  had  every  chance  to  make 
it,  but  the  shore  slipped  rapidly  by.  The  boat 
was  sliding.  With  an  exclamation  Brooke  made 

a  dive   for  the  center-board  halyards.     Down 

142 


BLUE  ANCHOR  INN 

went  the  board  with  a  thud,  but  it  was  too  late. 
The  good  yawl  slid  neatly  past  the  point  of  the 
island,  and  they  were  in  the  open  sea. 

The  young  man  was  stupefied  with  amaze- 
ment. It  had  all  happened  so  quickly.  He  knew 
there  was  little  chance  of  their  being  able  to  beat 
their  way  back  against  that  terrific  wind  and  sea 
with  only  the  jib  and  the  little  jigger  sail.  And 
as  for  attempting  to  set  the  mainsail,  it  would 
have  been  suicide,  for  one  blast  of  that  gale 
would  have  overturned  the  boat  as  if  it  had  been 
a  child's  toy.  The  situation  was  serious.  De- 
termined, however,  to  show  a  cheerful  front  he 
went  toward  the  stern  where  she  sat.  For  the 
first  time  he  saw  her  face. 

In  sheer  amazement  he  stopped  still  in  his 
tracks,  for  facing  him  was  not  Mrs.  Brooke,  but 
Miss  Grey  1 


143 


CHAPTER  XIV 

A  LIVID  flare  of  lightning  illumined  the  sea 
for  an  instant,  and  sudden  thunder  ex- 
ploded above  the  masthead.  But  it  was  not 
more  startling  to  him  than  the  discovery  that  it 
was  not  Mrs.  Brooke  aboard  the  yawl. 

She  smiled  at  him  with  a  frightened  attempt 
at  good  humor.  Had  Brooke  been  less  con- 
cerned about  the  storm  and  the  sea,  he  might 
have  laughed  at  the  poor  bedraggled  figure. 
Her  hair  hung  down  over  her  nose.  Her  dress 
clung  tightly  to  her,  and  streams  of  water  ran 
from  the  hems  of  her  garments.  She  looked 
like  a  statue  in  a  fountain.  He,  himself,  was  in 
the  same  condition.  All  his  clothes  stuck  to  him. 
The  only  comfort  either  of  them  might  derive 
was  that  it  was  quite  impossible  to  be  more  wet 
than  they  were. 

He  went  forward  to  the  windlass  and  hauled 
up  the  dragging  anchor.  When  he  returned, 

144 


BLUE  ANCHOR  INN 

edging  his  way  carefully  down  the  slippery  deck, 
she  relinquished  her  place  at  the  wheel  to  him. 

"  There  are  a  couple  of  oilskins  in  the  locker," 
she  suggested. 

"  I  am  afraid  I  am  too  wet  already,"  he  said. 
"  But  you'd  better  go  down  and  get  one  for 
yourself." 

She  shook  her  head. 

"  What  are  you  going  to  do  ? "  she  demanded, 
as  he  brought  the  yawl  around  into  the  wind. 

"  I  am  going  to  try  to  beat  back  to  the  island." 

The  instant  he  brought  the  boat  around  from 
her  course  straight  before  the  wind,  the  gale  and 
the  seas  descended  upon  her  with  all  their  force. 
The  wind  hit  the  two  little  sails,  and  the  craft 
careened  until  the  whole  lee  gunwale  was  awash 
and  the  waves  splashed  in  the  cockpit. 

"  Afraid  ?  "  he  demanded. 

She  picked  up  a  bucket  that  hung  under  the 
seat. 

"Not  yet,"  she  replied,  and  began  to  bail. 

When  they  got  the  bow  headed  toward  land 
again,  the  full  power  of  the  gale,  the  flying  rain 
and  the  sea  fell  upon  the  yawl.  A  great  wave 

145 


BLUE  ANCHOR  INN 

hit  her  bows  with  the  force  of  a  trip-hammer, 
and  she  stopped  as  if  she  had  run  into  a  wall. 
No  sooner  had  she  gained  more  headway  than 
another  struck  her — and  another — and  another. 
The  sea  washed  the  length  of  the  deck  by  the 
barrelful.  The  cockpit  swam  with  water.  Had 
they  been  at  anchor  they  could  not  have  been 
more  stationary,  except  for  the  dizzy  careen  of  the 
yawl. 

"  I'm  willing  to  give  it  up,  if  you  are,"  he  said 
at  length,  as  a  wave  came  down  the  full  sweep 
of  the  deck  and  drenched  them  from  head  to 
foot. 

"  Please  do,"  she  gasped. 

He  let  the  bow  swing  around,  and  again  they 
ran  before  the  wind.  He  tried  to  make  the  girl 
go  below,  but  she  insisted  she  was  as  comfortable 
on  deck  as  it  was  possible  for  her  to  be  anywhere, 
so  they  stayed  there  together  as  long  as  the 
storm  lasted. 

While  they  were  running  before  the  wind  they 
were  safe.  Although  the  sea  was  rough  and 
tossed  them  about  considerably,  they  shipped 

but  little  water  and  the  boat  stood  upright  as  she 

146 


BLUE  ANCHOR  INN 

tore  along.  They  might  have  been  considerably 
disturbed  had  they  attempted  to  estimate  how 
much  distance  they  were  putting  between  them 
and  Lugger  Island.  But  neither  of  them  was 
thinking  of  anything,  the  results  of  which  were  so 
far  in  the  future.  The  present  five  minutes  was 
their  only  concern.  All  Brooke  hoped  for  was 
to  keep  their  craft  right  side  up  and  above  the 
surface  of  the  water.  The  question  of  what  was 
going  to  happen  in  twelve  hours  was  too  su- 
preme a  problem  to  consider. 

Of  two  possible  evils,  that  of  being  swamped 
at  sea  worried  him  less  than  the  possibility  of  go- 
ing ashore  on  some  reef  or  rock.  As  long  as 
they  could  keep  in  the  open  water,  they  had  an 
even  chance  for  safety.  The  yawl  was  a  sea- 
worthy craft,  and  if  they  could  keep  afloat  for  a 
few  hours  more,  the  storm  would  doubtless  run 
its  course.  Following  out  this  line  of  reasoning, 
Brooke,  therefore,  kept  her  head  as  much  as 
possible  to  the  southeast.  He  was  able  to  do 
this  without  much  difficulty,  as  by  so  doing  he 
got  the  wind  directly  over  the  quarter.  This 
took  them  safely  away  from  land  and  at  the  same 

147 


BLUE  ANCHOR  INN 

time  got  them  further  and  further  from  the 
center  of  the  storm. 

The  rain  continued  until  about  half-past  five 
by  his  watch,  and  then  began  to  abate  with  all 
the  suddenness  of  its  coming.  The  thunder 
rumbled  off  into  the  distance.  The  light  broke 
through  the  clouds  in  the  east,  and  within  an 
hour  the  whole  black  bank  had  rolled  across  the 
heavens  and  disappeared  beneath  the  western 
horizon.  The  wind  died  down  to  a  zephyr,  and 
they  lay  rolling  on  the  breast  of  the  ocean,  with 
sea  to  the  four  sides  of  them  and  the  setting  sun 
shining  on  their  dripping  decks. 

Worn  out  by  exertion  and  worry,  they  stretched 
out  on  the  boards,  and  let  the  little  craft  bob  her 
own  way  about  amidst  the  waves.  The  red  disk 
of  the  sun  had  already  touched  the  sea  before 
they  felt  energy  enough  to  move. 

"  I  don't  like  to  seem  dictatorial,"  he  said 
presently,  "  but  hadn't  you  better  change  your 
wet  clothes?" 

She  looked  doubtfully  at  her  dripping,  be- 
draggled attire. 

"  It's  not  very  beautiful." 
148 


BLUE  ANCHOR  INN 

"  I  was  thinking,"  he  said,  "  that  you  might 
catch  cold." 

She  debated  for  a  moment  upon  a  question,  of 
whose  exact  nature  she  did  not  enlighten  him. 
Then  she  smiled  and  went  dutifully  below.  As 
Brooke  gave  more  consideration  to  the  problem, 
he  became  a  little  perplexed.  When  she  had 
come  aboard  she  had  brought  no  luggage  but  a 
parasol. 

But  he  had  not  given  due  credit  to  her  inge- 
nuity. She  reappeared  presently  clad  in  her 
bathing-suit,  which  she  had  kept  aboard  the 
sailboat,  so  that  she  might  swim  in  the  channel. 
She  informed  him  that  there  was  a  duck  sailor 
suit  below,  which  he  might  wear.  He  retired 
to  try  the  experiment  of  putting  this  costume  on. 

The  result  was  very  successful.  The  mating 
of  that  particular  pair  of  trousers  with  that  par- 
ticular jumper  was  the  result  of  circumstance  and 
not  of  congeniality.  The  jumper  had  the  ap- 
pearance of  having  been  plucked  before  it  had 
attained  its  full  growth,  and  fitted  with  an  ear- 
nestness and  sincerity  of  purpose  that  gave  him 

somewhat  the  appearance  of  having  attempted 

149 


BLUE  ANCHOR  INN 

to  crawl  through  a  fire  hose  and  stuck  in  the 
middle.  The  trousers,  on  the  other  hand,  en- 
cased him  largely  and  liberally.  The  final  result 
gave  him  the  graceful  and  sinuous  form  of  a 
bottle  of  olive  oil. 

He  was  somewhat  modest  about  the  beauty  of 
this  composition,  and  ascended  to  the  deck  du- 
biously. When  the  ensemble  was  presently  in 
view,  the  young  woman  at  the  wheel  started  in 
alarm.  But  as  the  full  glory  of  it  all  struck  her 
she  burst  out  laughing. 

"What's  the  matter?"  he  demanded,  with 
dignity. 

She  thought  a  moment 

"  I  think,"  she  said,  "  you've  dislocated  your 
lungs." 

He  burst  out  laughing. 

"  One  might  well  envy  the  figure  of  the  man 
for  whom  this  costume  was  designed,"  he  said, 
looking  down  ruefully  at  it.  "  In  the  meantime, 
are  you  hungry  ?  " 

They  thereupon  turned  their  attention  to  that 
important  item — the  food  supply.  They  found 

there  was  plenty  of  water.     The  tank  had  been 

150 


BLUE  ANCHOR  INN 

filled  the  day  the  yawl  had  gone  aground  and 
practically  none  of  it  had  been  used.  They 
found,  too,  that  when  they  began  investigations 
in  the  galley  the  larder  had  been  sufficiently 
well  stocked  by  the  providential  Mrs.  Brooke  to 
last  for  a  week,  if  used  judiciously.  There  was 
an  abundance  of  flour,  sugar,  salt  and  such 
staples,  and  many  cans  of  corn,  peas,  sardines, 
salmon,  and  other  delicacies,  in  addition  to  some 
potatoes.  There  was  also  oil  for  the  stove,  and 
matches.  They  blessed  the  housewifely  foresight 
of  Mrs.  Brooke. 

With  this  working  material,  they  prepared  the 
first  of  what  appeared  likely  to  be  a  long  series 
of  meals.  For  he  figured  that  they  must  be  sixty 
miles  out  at  sea,  and,  with  light  winds,  his  rather 
rusty  seamanship,  and  their  lack  of  knowledge 
as  to  their  bearings,  it  might  take  three  or  four 
days  to  return  to  land.  Of  course,  there  was  al- 
ways the  possibility  of  their  being  picked  up 
(looking  at  the  question  from  the  bright  side)  and 
(looking  at  it  from  the  other  side)  the  possibility 
of  another  storm  like  the  one  they  had  just  gone 
through  and  probable  shipwreck. 


BLUE  ANCHOR  INN 

The  three-quarter  moon  came  out  bright  in  a 
cloudless  sky.  The  wind  was  a  mere  breath. 
They  crawled  along  on  an  endless  tack  to  star- 
board, scarcely  making  way  enough  to  ripple 
the  water  along  the  boat's  sides.  The  girl  lay 
out  on  one  of  the  long  benches  watching  the  sky. 
He  held  the  wheel  in  one  hand.  The  stillness  of 
the  night  was  broken  only  by  the  rattle  of  the 
jib  now  and  again  as  he  came  inadvertently  too 
close  up  into  the  wind.  It  was  a  strange  situa- 
tion. 

Had  they  still  continued  to  battle  with  storms 
and  lightning  and  sudden  death,  her  presence 
would  have  been  no  more  disturbing,  save  for 
anxiety  for  her  safety,  than  the  presence  of  a 
man.  But  now  that  the  troubled  sea  had  sub- 
sided, and  the  wind  had  gone  down,  he  was  not 
pleased  with  the  responsibility  of  the  young  girl 
in  his  care. 

As  a  sedate,  married  man,  Brooke  felt  his  po- 
» sition.  Now  that  he  was  no  longer  candidate  for 
the  blandishments  or  charms  of  young  woman- 
hood, he  was  filled  with  a  sudden  consciousness 

that  he  owed  a  paternal  protection  to  them  all. 

152 


BLUE  ANCHOR  INN 

He  surmised  that  Miss  Grey  would  naturally  be 
embarrassed  at  being  thrown  into  such  intimate 
contact  with  a  man,  and  it  was  his  place  to  dispel 
this.  His  reasoning  was  the  natural  one  for  a 
young  man  endeavoring  to  be  straightforward 
and  decent  in  an  unaccustomed  position,  but 
could  he  have  seen  himself  through  her  eyes,  he 
would  have  found  it  all  unnecessary  speculation, 
for  the  instant  she  had  looked  into  his  frank, 
clear  eyes  she  had  dismissed  all  such  questions 
from  her  mind. 

These  were  the  last  things  he  remembered 
thinking  before  he  unintentionally  went  to  sleep. 
When  he  awoke,  the  sun  was  rising  and  the 
yawl  was  motionless  except  as  she  rocked  to  and 
fro  in  a  dead  calm. 


153 


CHAPTER  XV 

WHEN  Miss  Grey  awoke  as  the  result  of  his 
stirring  about,  it  was  some  seconds  before 
she  realized  where  she  was.  Then  she  stumbled 
to  her  feet,  rubbing  her  eyes  like  a  newly- wakened 
child,  and  waved  her  hand  to  him. 

"  Good-morning,  captain,"  she  said,  sleepily, 
"  Have  we  passed  the  Azores  ?  " 

"  I  don't  know.  I've  been  asleep  all  night," 
replied  the  faithful  skipper. 

She  stepped  up  on  the  gunwale  and  held  on 
by  the  stays.  "  Is  it  deep  enough  here  to  dive  ?  " 
she  inquired. 

Brooke,  who  had  no  idea  that  she  would, 
replied  smilingly  in  the  affirmative.  Where- 
upon, without  further  ado,  she  plunged  in.  He 
watched  her  come  up  and  swim  about  with  good 
strong  strokes. 

"There's  a  bathing-suit  under  the  starboard 
bunk,"  she  called.  "  Water's  fine." 

With  some  misgivings  as  to  his  probable 
154 


BLUE  ANCHOR  INN 

appearance  in  this  new  costume,  he  went  below 
and  extricated  himself  from  the  toils  of  his  sailor 
jumper.  The  bathing-suit  proving  to  be  a  good 
fit,  he  was  presently  splashing  in  the  water  be- 
side her. 

This  was  a  very  pleasant  way  to  start  off  a  ship- 
wrecked day.  If  you  can  imagine  a  very  young 
and  especially  playful  dolphin  making  tildes  and 
parentheses  of  itself  and  being  here  and  there  and 
everywhere  all  at  the  same  time,  you  have  a 
picture  of  Miss  Grey  disporting  her  agile  self  in 
the  water.  Brooke  paddled  about  lazily  for  the 
pure  fun  of  watching  her  dive  overboard,  swim 
about,  pull  herself  up  at  the  bowsprit,  and  dive 
again. 

He  could  not  help  thinking  how  well  she  con- 
cealed the  embarrassment  he  had  decided  the 
night  before  she  must  certainly  feel  in  her  strange 
position.  It  pleased  him  to  think  that  this  was 
perhaps  due  to  the  delicacy  with  which  he  had 
handled  the  situation.  It  was  a  pleasant  thought 
to  know  that  he  had  advanced  into  a  more 
elderly  and  respected  epoch  of  his  life  and  was 
fulfilling  the  duties  attendant  thereto  with  credit 

155 


BLUE  ANCHOR  INN 

to  himself  and  with  benefit  to  others.  He  there- 
fore relaxed  somewhat  from  the  elderly  and 
paternal  attitude  he  had  assumed  and  became 
again  the  free  and  easy,  boyish  young  man. 

"  How  many  lumps,  captain  ? "  Miss  Grey 
inquired  as  they  sat  comfortably  at  breakfast  in 
the  cockpit. 

"  One,  please.  Why  do  you  call  me  captain  ?  " 
he  added. 

She  glanced  at  him  over  the  rim  of  her  coffee 
cup.  Her  eyes  were  mischievous. 

"  Captain,"  she  observed,  "  is  a  term  of  re- 
spect, of  veneration,  and" — buttering  a  small 
cracker  with  much  seriousness — "  of  endear- 
ment." 

He  helped  himself  to  some  sticky  marmalade. 

"What  appellation,"  said  he,  "could  I  use  in 
addressing  you  which  would  convey  the  same 
idea?" 

"  Rather  a  bold  speech,"  he  informed  himself, 
"  for  an  old  married  man." 

She  glanced  at  him  quizzically. 

"  Call  me  Yndita,"  she  said. 

He  eyed  her  warily. 

156 


BLUE  ANCHOR  INN 

"  No,  you  don't.  You  read  that  name  in  a 
book." 

"  Truly  I  didn't.  It's  my  own  name.  It's  an 
Indian  name  meaning  '  rain.'  " 

"Appropriate  in  the  last  few  days,"  he  ob- 
served. 

She  paused  for  a  moment  in  thought. 

"  My  friends  call  me  '  Dita,'  "  she  said,  irrel- 
evantly. 

There  was  just  a  shadow  of  a  smile  on 
Brooke's  lips. 

"  Yes,"  he  said,  politely. 

She  leaned  forward  with  her  elbows  on  her 
knees  and  gazed  with  refreshing  interest  into  his 
eyes. 

"  Say  '  Dita,'  "  she  demanded. 

After  all,  he  reasoned,  if  he  were  to  act  as  her 
guardian  and  protector,  he  might  properly  ad- 
dress her  by  her  Christian  name. 

"  Dita,"  said  he. 

"  No,  no.  Not  like  saying  a  piece.  Say  it  as 
though  you  were  calling  me  Dita." 

He  looked  down  into  her  animated,  cheerful 
face. 

157 


BLUE  ANCHOR  INN 

"  Did  you  say,"  he  asked,  following  the  train 
of  thought  induced  by  this  glance,  "  that  Yndita 
meant  Rain  or  Sunshine  ?  " 

As  soon  as  he  had  said  it,  he  knew  that  this 
was  not  well  advised. 

She  smiled  ;  but  did  not  enlighten  him. 

"  I  think  you  ought  to  dispose  of  the  break- 
fast dishes  now,"  he  said. 

She  picked  up  the  tray  meekly.  Then  she  set 
it  down  again. 

"To  whom  were  you  speaking?"  she  asked. 

"  You." 

"  And  what  is  my  name  ?  " 

"  Dita." 

She  smiled  sweetly,  and  picking  up  the  dishes, 
disappeared  into  the  cabin.  Brooke  knew  this 
was  not  in  the  least  the  ideal  footing  for  them  to 
be  on.  It  was  too  intimate,  too  entirely  personal. 
A  flirtation  with  this  girl  would  produce  an  ab- 
solutely intolerable  situation.  She  was  in  the 
employ  of  the  woman  he  had  every  reason  to  be- 
lieve was  his  wife.  He  had  a  duty  to  perform. 
Although  he  had  not  married  with  the  intention 

of  loving  and  cherishing  his  wife  forever,  the  re- 

158 


"YOU    MUST   TAKE    A    VERY    TINY    BITE" 


BLUE  ANCHOR  INN 

sponsibility  of  that  wife  was  imposing  and  final. 
She  blotted  out  forever  the  image  of  every  other 
woman. 

Therefore  he  saw  immediately  the  only  solu- 
tion of  the  problem  was  to  tell  her  he  was  mar- 
ried. That  would  not  be  a  very  easy  thing  to 
do,  as  it  had  the  air  of  presupposing  it  would 
make  any  difference  to  her.  However,  he  would 
do  the  thing  very  casually,  some  time  when  it 
would  appear  as  if  the  idea  had  just  sprung  into 
his  head.  And  when  she  had  classified  him  ac- 
cording to  this  new  information,  it  would  make  it 
possible  for  him  not  to  be  sensible  to  her  fascina- 
tions— without  thereby  seeming  to  be  disrespect- 
ful to  her. 

His  opportunity  came  very  soon.  That  even- 
ing for  dinner  she  baked  biscuit,  which  she  took 
doubtfully  to  him  to  taste  as  he  sat  at  the  wheel 
urging  the  reluctant  yawl  against  a  light  fitful 
wind. 

"  You  must  take  a  very  tiny  bite,"  she  said, 
"and  if  it  makes  you  ill,  you  mustn't  eat  any 
more." 

Brooke,  who  came  of  a  family  of  brave  men, 
159 


BLUE  ANCHOR  INN 

took  the  biscuit  and  tasted  it  without  an  instant's 
hesitation. 

"  Does  it  make  you  ill  ?  "  she  demanded  imme- 
diately. 

"  Not  yet." 

She  waited  a  while  with  ill-concealed   impa- 
tience. 

"  I  think  they're  good,"  he  said. 

She  laughed  in  great  delight. 

"  I  think  you  would  be  an  ideal  husband," 
she  cried. 

He  seized  this  opportunity. 

"  I  am,"  he  replied. 

After  he  had  said  it,  the  idea  did  seem  rather 
dragged  in  by  the  horns. 

She  opened  her  eyes  wide. 

"  An  ideal  husband  ?  "  she  said. 

He  saw  that  his  statement  had  been  a  little  too 
general. 

"  Just  a  husband,"  he  corrected. 

She  sat  down  on  the  seat  in  surprise. 

"  Think  of  you  being  married." 

Brooke  had  nothing  to  say,  so  he  did  as  di- 
rected. 

160 


BLUE  ANCHOR  INN 

"  Does  your  wife,"  she  asked,  "  make  as  good 
biscuits  as  these  ?  " 

He  was  embarrassed. 

"  Well,  she — she — in  fact,  I  don't  believe  she 
ever  made  biscuits  just  like  these." 

The  girl  considered. 

"  Is  your  wife  a  blonde  or  brunette  ?  " 

The  young  man  shifted  his  position  uneasily 
while  he  considered  this. 

"She  has  golden  hair,"  he  said,  boldly,  Mrs. 
Brooke's  hair  having  a  tendency  in  that  direction. 

"Tell  me  some  more  about  her,"  she  demanded 
with  interest. 

He  cudgeled  his  brain. 

"Well,  she  is  very  well  dressed,  and  good 

looking,  and  entertaining — and "  He  paused 

in  embarrassment.  "  That's  about  all  I  can  think 
of  just  now,"  he  said. 

She  looked  at  him  queerly. 

"  It's  a  very  comprehensive  description,'5  she 
observed.  "  But  I  mustn't  stand  here  gossiping, 
when  I  have  dinner  to  get." 

He  gazed  after  her  with  interest.     He  began 

to  realize  that  the  paternal  and  protecting  posi- 

161 


BLUE  ANCHOR  INN 

tion  he  had  decided  to  occupy  was  no  longer 
tenable.  He  did  not  feel  paternal  and  protect- 
ing. There  was  a  pleasant  air  of  companionship 
about  her  that  made  it  impossible  for  one  to  be 
deliberately  aloof  and  afar  off. 

His  experience  with  women  had  been  rather 
spasmodic  and  unexciting.  If  during  all  his 
young  manhood  there  had  been  no  girls  what- 
ever in  the  world,  it  would  have  left  no  gap  in 
his  life.  His  interest  had  been  first  of  all  in  pay- 
ing his  way  through  college,  second,  in  getting 
his  money's  worth  while  at  college,  and  third,  in 
keeping  up  with  the  few  men  friends  he  found 
time  to  cultivate.  To  him,  women  had  meant 
the  friends  of  his  mother,  whom  he  met  when 
he  went  home  ;  and  the  sisters  of  his  companions 
who  were  brought  to  college  dances  to  be 
waltzed  with,  fanned,  and  returned  to  their  re- 
spective spots  along  the  wall  where  they  kept 
their  scarfs,  handkerchiefs,  and,  sometimes,  their 
mothers. 

Brooke  had  never  had  an  unfavorable  opin- 
ion of  them.  In  fact,  they  had  been  nice.  If 

he  had  said   something  funny,  they  had  been 

162 


BLUE  ANCHOR  INN 

willing  to  laugh.  Sometimes  they  had  said  in- 
teresting things  to  him.  But  he  had  found  that 
on  such  social  occasions  they  conversed  irrele- 
vantly, or  excitedly,  or  simply  for  the  sake  of 
saying  something.  He  had  been  unfortunate 
enough  never  to  come  across  a  girl  who  would 
lay  aside  the  superficial  manners  that  are  neces- 
sary in  the  complicated  civilization  in  which  we 
live  and  take  the  trouble  to  invite  his  attention  to 
the  elemental  and  human  feelings  that  were  in 
her  heart — just  as  in  every  man's.  Such  a 
person  he  could  have  treated  as  a  companion, 
and  to  her  would  have  been  said  the  real  things 
he  felt. 

However,  as  no  such  girl  had  happened  to 
appear,  he  had  continued  to  be  of  the  opinion 
that  the  sex  was  somewhat  a  failure  as  far  as  he 
was  concerned. 

He  was  therefore  surprised  to  find  himself 
taking  pleasure  in  the  presence  of  Miss  Grey. 
It  was  comfortable  to  have  her  consider  his 
wants  and  pleasures,  to  have  her  bustle  up  on 
deck  when  it  grew  cooler  in  the  evening  and  in- 
sist, with  an  air  of  motherly  concern,  that  he  put 

163 


BLUE  ANCHOR  INN 

on  the  sweater  she  had  rooted  out  of  one  of  the 
lockers  below ;  to  have  her,  as  soon  as  she  found 
he  liked  a  certain  thing  which  the  materials  at 
hand  permitted  them  to  have,  sit  down  immedi- 
ately with  a  forlorn  cook-book  in  her  hand  and 
puzzle  out  how  it  was  made,  with  frequent  calls 
upon  him  for  his  opinion  upon  this  point  or  upon 
that. 

It  was  a  pleasure  to  have  her  wandering  in- 
quisitively about  the  boat,  finding  at  every  turn 
strange  things  that  required  explanations,  argu- 
ing about  the  old  established  rules  of  seaman- 
ship which  she  did  not  "  see  any  sense  in,"  learn- 
ing how  to  do  things  and  then  doubting  the 
advisability  of  doing  them  that  way,  and  so 
forth.  He  felt,  as  he  had  never  felt  in  the  case  of 
any  other  woman,  her  physical  charm.  Her 
round,  white  arms,  which  the  rolled-up  sleeves 
left  bare,  pleased  him.  When  her  hand  had 
touched  his  that  morning  as  she  passed  him  his 
coffee,  he  had  experienced  a  little  unfamiliar 
tremor  of  interest, —  no,  perhaps  of  so  strong  a 
sentiment  as  excitement — which  had  never  oc- 
curred on  similar  occasions  heretofore. 

164 


BLUE  ANCHOR  INN 

Presently,  interrupting  his  reveries,  she  came 
running  back  with  a  burn  on  her  wrist.  She 
carried  a  package  of  soda  and  a  piece  of  muslin 
in  her  hand. 

"Are  you  sorry?"  she  demanded,  pathetically. 

"  Yes,"  he  said. 

"  Very  sorry  ?  " 

"  Extremely  sorry." 

She  knelt  down  before  him  and  put  the  soda 
and  the  muslin  and  the  wrist  on  his  lap.  He 
bound  up  the  injured  member  carefully.  When 
he  was  making  the  final  knot  in  the  bandage,  he 
pulled  it  too  tight  over  the  burn.  She  winced. 
He  leaned  over  instantly  and  kissed  the  en- 
swathed  wrist. 

She  laughed  lightly,  and  held  up  the  other 
one.  But  he  did  not  kiss  that. 


165 


CHAPTER  XVI 

'"  said  Brooke»  "  there  is  no  doubt  that 
you  are  still  very  much  of  a  child." 

She  stopped  in  the  midst  of  sweeping  the 
cockpit. 

"Now,  what  could  you  mean  by  that?  "she 
cried. 

"  I  have  been  making  a  study  of  your  char- 
acter." 

She  dropped  upon  the  cockpit  seat,  and 
balanced  the  broom  across  her  knees. 

"  All  right,"  she  said,  expectantly.  "  Tell  me 
about  it." 

"  I  hadn't  meant  it  for  publication,"  he  replied, 
laughing. 

"  Oh,  tell  me  anyway." 

"  Well,"  said  he,  slowly,  "  your  first  salient 
characteristic " 

"  Yes,"  she  cried,  eagerly. 

"  Is  curiosity." 

1 66 


BLUE  ANCHOR  INN 

Her  face  fell.  She  looked  at  him  hard  and 
they  both  burst  out  laughing. 

"  Now,  the  other  salient  characteristics,  please," 
she  said,  sweetly. 

"  First  of  all  among  them,  an  amiable  and 
charming  disposition." 

She  checked  it  off  on  her  little  finger  with  the 
handle  of  the  broom. 

"  Second,  poise,  aplomb,  self-possession." 

She  checked  on  her  ring  finger. 

"  How  did  you  deduce  that  ?  " 

"  When  we  went  adrift,"  he  asserted,  "  instead 
of  wringing  your  hands  and  being  generally  in 
the  way,  you  bailed  out  the  cockpit.  Now,  in- 
stead of  wondering  when  under  the  canopy  you 
are  ever  going  to  get  on  dry  land,  you  bake  bis- 
cuits." 

She  pursed  her  lips. 

"That's  only  common  sense.  I  don't  think 
that  is  such  a  great  compliment." 

"Please  get  it  out  of  your  head  that  I  am  try- 
ing to  compliment  you,"  he  said.  "  Nothing  is 
further  from  my  thoughts." 

"  Yes,"  she  replied,  meekly. 
167 


BLUE  ANCHOR  INN 

"  Salient  feature  number  three,"  he  went  on, 
"  would  be  industry." 

She  moved  the  broom-handle  reluctantly  to  the 
next  finger. 

"  One  of  those  homely  old  virtues — but  I 
don't  mind  counting  it." 

"  It  is  one  of  the  best  virtues  we  have,"  he  as- 
serted. "  I  might  add  to  that,  as  a  corollary, 
capability." 

"  That's  just  as  big  an  insult  as  the  other.  Isn't 
there  anything  more  exciting  on  your  list  ?  " 

He  smiled  good-humoredly. 

"  Well,"  he  said,  "  there  is  one  more,  and  that 
is  the  one  I  like  best." 

She  lost  the  count  on  her  fingers  and  leaned 
forward  with  her  elbows  on  her  knees. 

"  Yes,"  she  said. 

"  You  are  so  sincerely  a  human  being,"  he  be- 
gan. "  There  is  no  veneer  of  humanity  on  the 
surface,  with  simply  a  lifelike  clockworks  within." 
He  paused  a  moment.  "That  doesn't  explain 
exactly  what  I  mean.  I  think  all  I  am  trying  to 
say  is  that  I  find  you  tremendously  congenial." 

She  colored  with  pleasure. 
1 68 


BLUE  ANCHOR  INN 

"  And  still,"  she  said,  slowly,  quoting  him, 
"  there  is  no  doubt  I  am  very  much  of  a  child." 

She  looked  out  across  the  twilight  sea,  and 
then  she  began  to  laugh. 

"  Why  do  you  laugh  ?  " 

"  Oh,  dear,"  she  complained,  "  I  never  could 
be  lugubrious  enough  to  convince  people  I  had 
any  brains  at  all." 

"  Your  brains  haven't  been  called  into  ques- 
tion," he  observed. 

"  Oh,  yes,  they  have.  I  have  made  a  mistake 
— a  fatal  mistake.  I  should  have  adopted  an 
attitude  of  extreme  seriousness.  I  should  never 
have  sat  down  with  one  foot  curled  up  under  me 
— as  at  present.  I  shouldn't  have  laughed — be- 
cause I  have  dimples.  Those  things  indicate 
immaturity.  And  immaturity,  captain,  is  noth- 
ing more  or  less  than  an  inability,  at  present 
date,  to  cope  successfully  with  the  serious  prob- 
lems of  life.  Isn't  it  so  ?  " 

"  Yes — and  no,"  answered  he,  temporizing. 

"  You  know  it  is." 

"  Perhaps  what  you  say  is  true.  I  hadn't  gone 
so  deeply  into  it." 

169 


BLUE  ANCHOR  INN 

She  rose. 

"  Oh,  well,"  she  sighed,  "  some  day  I  shall 
convince  you  that  I  am  not  so  disgracefully 
young." 

She  looked  over  the  gunwale  at  the  dark 
waters  reflecting  the  night  and  the  stars,  and, 
seeming  even  more  dark,  the  dull  light  of  the 
cloud-obscured  moon.  She  shuddered. 

"  The  ocean  is  ugly  at  night,"  she  said. 

"  Then  you  wouldn't  care  to  dive  in  now  ?" 

She  came  away  and  sat  down  again. 

"  No.  I  don't  like  it.  It  is  like  some  huge 
monster — a  huge  reptile." 

"  If  you  will  take  the  wheel,"  he  said,  "  I  will 
light  the  running  lights."  He  took  a  box  of 
matches  from  his  pocket.  "  Did  you  ever 
realize  just  how  much  two  oil-lamps  mean  to 
us?  They  are  our  eyes  and  ears.  Those  two 
on  a  cloudy  night  might  mean  just  the  dif- 
ference between  being  run  down  or  being  picked 
up." 

She  nodded.  The  threadbare  idea  had  a  very 
real  meaning  to  these  two  mariners  bobbing 

about  on   the   open  sea.     They  could  not  help 

170 


BLUE  ANCHOR  INN 

having  a  strong  affection  for  the  red  and  green 
eyes  of  the  boat. 

"  Am  I  too  young  to  suggest  something?"  she 
asked  presently. 

He  looked  at  her  warily. 

"  No,"  he  replied. 

"  Then  I  should  suggest  that  you  investigate 
their  contents.  No  one  knows  when  they  were 
filled  last." 

He  made  a  wry  face. 

"  I  knew  I  was  going  to  be  shown  up,"  he 
said.  "  I  never  thought  about  it." 

The  lamps  proved  upon  investigation  to  be  all 
but  empty. 

"  Jingo  1 "  he  cried. 

"  Well,"  he  said,  in  a  moment,  "  is  there  any 
oil?" 

She  was  thinking. 

"  I  think  I  know  where  it  ought  to  be.  Take 
the  wheel,  please." 

He  took  the  wheel,  and  waited  anxiously  for 
several  minutes.  At  the  end  of  that  time  she 
emerged  from  the  cabin  with  a  dusty  oil  can.  A 

potato  was  stuck  over  its  spout  to  keep  its  con- 

171 


BLUE  ANCHOR  INN 

tents  from  spilling.  When  they  unscrewed  the 
top  they  discovered  it  half  full  of  kerosene.  She 
screwed  it  on  again. 

"  Isn't  that  bully  ?  "  she  cried. 

"  It  helps  a  great  deal,"  he  responded,  con- 
tentedly. 

Putting  the  can  on  the  deck-house  she  ran 
forward  to  get  the  lamps,  looking,  in  her  bathing- 
suit  (which  she  had  been  compelled  to  put  on  by 
'reason  of  having  upset  a  saucepan  on  her  dress), 
very  much  like  a  nymph  or  dryad,  or  some  other 
such  graceful  creature.  He  smiled  approvingly 
as  he  looked  at  her.  Perhaps  his  interest  in 
her  made  him  just  a  little  less  attentive  to  the 
other  things  about  him  than  he  should  have 
been. 

"  Don't  come  aft  yet,"  he  called.  "  I'm  coming 
about." 

"  All  right,"  she  replied. 

He  threw  the  wheel  over,  and  she  waited  for 
the  big  sail  to  swing  across  to  the  other  side. 

"  Careful  1 "  she  ejaculated,  suddenly.  "  Wait 
a  minute ! " 

He  looked  up,  threw  the  wheel  back  hard,  but  it 
172 


BLUE  ANCHOR  INN 

was  too  late  !  The  boom  struck  the  can  on  the 
deck-house  and  knocked  it  clear  off.  It  fell  on 
the  gunwale,  balanced  a  moment  and  then  as  the 
craft  listed  to  leeward  slid  out  into  the  water. 
Brooke  made  two  jumps  to  the  side,  but  the  tin 
cylinder  was  gone  when  he  got  there. 

He  was  dumbfounded. 

But  before  he  had  time  to  actually  realize 
what  had  happened,  Dita  was  at  his  side,  stand- 
ing on  the  gunwale.  What  she  was  about  to  do 
never  entered  his  head,  until,  after  a  moment's 
hesitation,  she  leaned  calmly  forward  and  plunged 
into  the  somber  tide  ! 

He  caught  his  breath  in  astonishment  and  stood 
for  an  instant  dazed.  It  was  an  act  of  boyish 
courage  and  perfect  control.  He  could  not  but 
notice  that  even  in  the  excitement  of  the  moment 
she  had  made  a  perfect  dive  and  entered  the  sea 
with  scarcely  a  splash. 

His  every  impulse  was  to  plunge  in  after  her ; 
but  he  knew  his  place  was  on  board.  He  ran  to 
the  wheel  and  held  the  yawl's  head  up  in  the 
wind.  He  strained  his  eyes  and  ears  astern. 
Sometimes  he  thought  he  could  hear  the  girl 


BLUE  ANCHOR  INN 

above  the  noise  of  the  cracking  canvas.  He 
could  not  see  because  the  faint  glimmer  of  the 
moon  under  its  cloud  made  deceiving  reflections 
on  the  rolling  water.  He  would  have  sailed  after 
her  had  he  not  been  afraid  of  getting  too  great 
headway  before  the  wind,  and  losing  her  position 
entirely.  Picking  up  the  helmsman's  megaphone 
he  began  calling,  so  that  she  would  not  miss  her 
direction. 

Presently  after  what  seemed  to  be  hours  he 
heard  her  voice  calling. 

Deserting  the  helm,  he  ran  to  the  side  to  help 
her  aboard.  She  came  into  view  paddling  along 
with  the  oil  can  under  her  arm  !  He  reached 
down  and  pulled  them  both  over  the  side.  Then 
he  drew  a  long  sigh  of  relief. 

"  I  didn't  know  what  was  happening  to  you," 
he  said. 

She  smiled. 

"  You  aren't  going  to  be  rid  of  me  so  easily 
as  you  think." 

He  picked  up  the  blanket  he  had  ready  and 
threw  it  over  her  dripping  shoulders. 

"Now  run  down  and  change  those  clothes, 
174 


BLUE  ANCHOR  INN 

quickly,"  he  cried.     "And  when  you  come  up 
I'll  tell  you  what  a  wonder  you  are." 

She  stopped. 

"  Tell  me  now." 

"  Not  a  word.  Please  run  on  before  you  catch 
cold.  I'm  thoroughly  ashamed  for  not  having 
gone  overboard  myself.  But  I  thought  the  con- 
founded can  had  sunk  at  once  to  the  bottom  of 
the  sea." 

She  stopped  in  the  companion  way. 

"  So  did  I  at  first,"  she  cried  eagerly.  "  And 
then  I  remembered  that  it  was  all  closed  up  tight 
and  being  half  full  of  air,  would  therefore  prob- 
ably float.  So  I  took  a  chance  and  went  over 
after  it." 

"  Your  brain  was  working  then,"  he  cried, 
admiringly. 

"  I  thought  I  never  should  find  the  thing. 
When  you're  in  the  water  you  can't  see  more 
than  three  or  four  feet  away  from  you.  Finally, 
when  I  had  given  it  up,  I  bumped  right  into 
it." 

"  But  you're  shivering.  Please  run  down  and 
change." 

175 


BLUE  ANCHOR  INN 

"  You  haven't  told  me  how  nice  I  was  to  get 
you  your  kerosene." 

He  left  the  wheel  to  its  own  devices,  and  going 
over  to  the  head  of  the  companionway  caught 
both  her  wet  hands  in  his.  She  looked  up  into 
his  eyes  with  a  half  smile. 

"  You're  a  brick,"  he  said,  in  a  low  tone,  "  and 
I  humbly  apologize  for  ever  having  called  you  a 
child.  I  can  never  tell  you  how  wonderful  you 
were  to  do  that"  He  jerked  his  head  toward 
the  sea. 

She  stood  for  some  seconds  without  moving. 
In  spite  of  her  shivering,  a  warm  flush  rose  to 
her  cheeks. 

"  Thank  you,"  she  said  at  length,  and,  drawing 
her  hands  away,  she  ran  down  into  the  cabin. 


176 


CHAPTER  XVII 

BROOKE  was  certain  that  Lugger  Island 
lay  about  northwest  from  the  spot  where 
they  had  been  left  at  the  conclusion  of  the  storm, 
and  had  been  sailing  (with  a  great  deal  more 
coming  about  and  shifting  of  booms  than  real 
progress)  in  that  direction  all  day  long.  The 
wind  was  against  them  and  was  scarcely  strong 
enough  to  more  than  simply  keep  them  moving 
through  the  water.  At  sundown,  even  what  lit- 
tle breeze  there  was  fell  away,  and  the  yawl  lay 
still,  rocking  with  the  waves. 

Worn  out  with  their  respective  exertions  dur- 
ing the  day,  after  Brooke  had  lowered  all  the 
canvas,  they  lay  down  on  the  mattresses  they  had 
spread  in  the  cockpit.  The  girl  was  soon  asleep. 
He  did  not  sleep,  but  lay  upon  his  back,  staring 
speculatively  above  him.  Her  regular  breathing 
stirred  in  him  a  new  sense  of  excitement  that 

awoke  all  the  cohorts  of  his  brain.     Her  open 

177 


BLUE  ANCHOR  INN 

hand  lay  relaxed  on  her  mattress  almost  touch- 
ing him.  He  could  see  the  round  shoulders  ris- 
ing and  falling  as  she  breathed.  It  was  a  strange 
thing  that  it  was  only  necessary  for  all  her  con- 
scious movement  to  be  stilled — and  he  became 
immediately  alive  to  her  physical  personality. 
An  unexpected  feeling  of  exultation  came  over 
him  when  he  realized  that  this  girl  was  in  his 
care — and  his  alone.  If  those  high  stewards  of 
Fate  who  direct  the  lives  of  young  people  had 
wished  to  awaken  such  thoughts  in  him,  they 
could  not  have  chosen  more  potent  means 
than  to  cast  them  away  thus  on  the  face  of 
the  sea.  His  mind  thrust  aside  the  overtures 
of  sleep.  This  was  a  moment  of  exultation. 
It  was  a  piece  out  of  a  pleasant  dream — and 
he  lay  awake  to  listen  to  the  fine  melody  in  his 
heart. 

At  length,  however,  the  wide-awake  dreams 
merged  unconsciously  into  sleeping  ones.  The 
sweet  little  cherub  that  sits  up  aloft  was  the 
skipper  of  the  yawl.  Brooke  slept  the  fine, 
straightforward  slumber  "  that  knits  up  the 

raveled  sleeve  of  care."     He  was  awakened  after 

178 


BLUE  ANCHOR  INN 

a  long  while  by  a  light  hand  on  his  shoulder.  It 
was  still  dark.  She  was  sitting  up  beside  him, 
her  hands  clasped  over  her  knees. 

"  I  wanted  you  to  see  it,"  she  said. 

Across  the  sea  over  the  indistinct  horizon  hung 
the  flattened  moon.  All  its  bright  light  had 
faded,  save  only  the  silver  band  of  reflection 
across  the  black  waters.  The  rigging  rose  across 
the  dark  sky,  scarcely  distinct  in  the  ghostly 
glow  of  the  stars.  The  sea,  swelling  and  sinking 
mysteriously,  was  unfeeling  and  repulsive  in  its 
vastness.  It  all  seemed  supernatural  and  unreal. 
No  human  or  reassuring  thing  appeared  upon  it. 
No  light  moved  on  its  surface.  No  line  on  any 
side  showed  where  the  black  sky  met  the  black 
sea. 

The  only  sound  was  the  slapping  of  the  water 
against  the  boat's  keel.  They  felt  all  the  strange 
wonder  of  primeval  man  afloat  for  the  first  time 
alone  in  his  cockerel  on  a  strange  sea.  Here 
was  no  sight  of  the  deep  over  the  taffrail  of 
a  steady,  pounding  liner  with  an  electrically- 
lighted  cabin  at  one's  elbow.  This  was  the  same 

mysterious  sea  that  Magellan  and  others  sailed, 

179 


BLUE  ANCHOR  INN 

and  feared  lest  they  should  drop  over  its  edge. 
This  was  the  uncharted  waste  that  the  Roman 
galleys  tried,  putting  out  past  Gibraltar.  There 
was  no  hint  here  of  the  knowing  twentieth  cen- 
tury with  its  contemptuous  tolerance  of  the  forces 
of  nature.  This  was  the  sky  and  the  stars  and  the 
sea  itself,  which  filled  two  civilized  young  people 
with  all  the  savage  superstitions  of  centuries  ago 
and  a  half-forgotten  fear  of  the  great  Creator  of 
it  all. 

She  glanced  into  his  face  to  see  if  he  too  were 
thinking  the  things  she  was. 

"  I  had  to  wake  you,"  she  said,  in  a  low  tone. 
"  There  is  something  so  strange  and  big  about 
it." 

He  was  feeling  about  for  an  expression  of  his 
idea. 

"  I  feel,"  he  exclaimed,  "  as  if  we  were  two 
people  set  down  alone  upon  a  new  world." 

She  gave  him  a  quick  glance  of  sympathy. 

"  Yes,"  she  cried.  "  See !  It  is  an  absolutely 
deserted  planet.  The  water  extends  to  infinity 
in  every  direction.  And  you  and  I  are  the  only 

living  things," 

1 80 


BLUE  ANCHOR  INN 

It  was  pleasant  to  him  to  be  linked  together 
with  her  like  that. 

"  We  did  not  know,"  he  said,  presently,  "  what 
wonders  we  were  to  see  when  we  came  on  this 
little  journey." 

She  smiled. 

"  And  to  think,"  she  cried,  "  how  hard  we 
tried  not  to  come." 

Her  hand  touched  him.  He  put  his  hand  upon 
it  and  she  let  it  stay  in  his  clasp — until  the  mis- 
shapen moon  dropped  behind  the  sea.  They 
said  nothing  during  all  that  time,  but  a  new  and 
wonderful  sympathy  arose  between  them.  Then 
they  lay  down  in  the  chilly  night  and  drew 
their  rugs  about  them.  They  did  not  realize 
then  that  they  had  indeed  been  set  down  in  a 
new  world. 

It  was  daylight  when  the  fretful  flapping  of 
the  rigging  awoke  Brooke.  Another  intermittent 
breeze  had  sprung  up.  He  ran  up  sail  and, 
bringing  the  yawl's  head  up  into  the  wind,  made 
off  slowly  toward  the  north.  Dita  lay  with  her 

head  on  her  arm,  sleeping  peacefully  as  a  baby. 

181 


BLUE  ANCHOR  INN 

He  did  not  disturb  her,  and  she  slept  on  until 
presently  the  bright  morning  sun,  jealous  of 
Brooke's  uninterrupted  view,  peered  over  the 
edge  of  the  combing  and  fell  on  her  face. 
Whereupon  she  opened  her  eyes,  but  instantly 
closed  them,  as  if  trying  to  persuade  herself  that 
she  was  not  really  awake,  but  that  it  was  simply 
part  of  an  unpleasant  dream.  This  artifice,  how- 
ever, proved  futile,  and  at  length  she  had  to 
acknowledge  that  she  really  was  awake.  She 
smiled  dimly  at  Brooke,  and,  putting  her  white 
arms  over  her  head,  yawned  luxuriously  in  his 
face. 

"  Now  I'm  awake,"  she  said  at  length. 

She  ran  down  into  the  cabin  to  change  again 
to  her  bathing-suit.  When  she  returned  she 
brought  one  of  those  doughnut-shaped  life  pre- 
servers. She  made  this  fast  to  a  hawser  and  the 
hawser  fast  to  a  pin  in  the  stern.  When  she 
threw  the  preserver  overboard,  it  floated  the 
length  of  the  line  and  then  followed  the  yawl, 
dancing  and  skipping  over  the  waves,  forty  or 
fifty  feet  astern. 

Without  further  ado,  she  dived  over  the  side 
182 


BLUE  ANCHOR  INN 

and,  swimming  lazily  along,  caught  the  great 
ring  as  it  passed  her.  She  slid  through  the 
water  bobbing  over  the  waves  with  all  the  exu- 
berance and  joy  of  a  very  young  mermaid.  But 
the  skipper  presently  became  alarmed  and 
brought  the  boat  up  into  the  wind.  She  paddled 
back  and  clambered  aboard,  happy  and  con- 
tented as  a  child. 

She  was  glorious  as  she  stood  there,  all  drip- 
ping with  the  sea,  the  water  glistening  on  her 
bare  arms,  and  her  cheeks  pink  as  spring  roses 
with  the  dew  on  them. 

"  You  look  like  an  allegorical  figure  of  Un- 
dine," he  observed. 

She  leaned  over  and  tried  to  shake  a  drop  of 
water  off  the  end  of  her  nose  upon  an  unsuspect- 
ing fly. 

"  Who  was  Undine?  "  she  asked  at  length. 

"  She  was  the  goddess  of  the  waves." 

"  Then  I  am  like  her.  See,  wherever  I  go  I 
leave  a  small  ocean  on  the  deck.  No  one  but  a 
goddess  could  do  that." 

"  Not  without  being  put  off  the  boat." 

She  wrinkled  her  nose  at  him. 
183 


.  BLUE  ANCHOR  INN 

"  If  you  are  disagreeable  to  your  crew,"  she 
said,  "  there  will  be  a  mutiny." 

"  Are  you  the  crew  ?  "  he  demanded. 

"  Of  course  I  am, — or  what  is  worse,  a  mere 
scullery  maid." 

"  I  am  sorry,"  he  said,  "  that  you  have  to  work 
like  that." 

She  laughed  very  softly  and  sitting  down 
cross-legged  on  the  deck,  looked  at  him  fixedly 
for  a  second. 

"  /  shall  be  sorry,"  she  said,  "  when  it  is  all 
over." 

"  Why  ?  " 

She  nursed  her  ankle  thoughtfully. 

"  I  don't  know,"  was  all  the  reply  she  could 
give,  however.  "  It's  just  pleasant  and  nice." 

He  smiled. 

"  That's  the  way  I  have  felt  about  it,"  he  said. 
"  All  the  time  I  ought  to  be  worrying  my  head 
about  when  we  are  going  to  be  rescued.  I 
haven't  taken  the  least  interest  in  it." 

He  let  his  glance  fall  on  her  for  just  a  moment. 
For  no  accountable  reason,  the  color  mounted  to 

her  cheeks. 

184 


BLUE  ANCHOR  INN 

"The  sea,"  she  said,  demurely,  "is  very  beau- 
tiful and  comforting  and  homelike." 

He  started  to  say  something  and  then  checked 
himself.  But  it  was  not  about  the  sea. 

About  noon  that  day  a  breeze  sprang  up  dead 
astern.  The  yawl  ran  before  it  with  all  the  ease 
and  speed  of  a  motor  boat.  The  great  mainsail 
forward  hung  over  the  water  on  the  one  side, 
the  little  jigger  sail  abaft  hung  over  the  water 
on  the  other  side,  and  all  the  canvas  pulled  and 
drew  like  mad.  A  great  letter  V  stretched  away 
to  both  sides  astern. 

Along  about  three  in  the  afternoon  they 
sighted  a  motor  boat  in  the  distance  and  made 
efforts  to  attract  attention,  but  without  success, 
for  presently  she  turned  and  made  down  across 
the  horizon,  leaving  them  alone  on  the  waters. 
This  was  a  disappointment.  But,  as  Brooke 
said,  with  clear  weather  and  a  fair  wind,  they 
would  soon  run  across  other  sails.  This  point 
was  well  taken,  but  in  spite  of  that,  it  was  not 
until  after  dark  that  they  saw  the  red  and  green 
running  lights  of  a  craft  of  some  sort — coming 
toward  them. 

185 


BLUE  ANCHOR  INN 

It  was  some  time  before  they  dared  let  them- 
selves believe  it  actually  was  coming  toward 
them.  But  when  Brooke  signaled  with  a 
lantern  and  was  answered  from  the  other  boat, 
there  was  no  longer  any  room  for  doubt. 

This  ascertained,  he  came  aft  to  relieve  her  at 
the  wheel. 

"  Well,"  she  said,  gently,  "  that  is  the  end  of 
this  little  adventure." 

"I  am  sorry,"  he  replied,  reaching  for  the 
spokes  of  the  wheel. 

For  no  reason  at  all,  she  still  held  them,  look- 
ing up  into  his  face  mischievously. 

He  put  both  his  hands  down  on  hers,  as  she 
still  grasped  the  wheel,  and  threw  the  helm  over 
a  little  to  bring  the  yawl  to  leeward  of  the  ap- 
proaching launch.  She  did  not  move,  but  let 
her  hands  stay  in  his. 

The  dim  light  in  the  binnacle  threw  a  warm 
glow  on  her  face.  She  returned  his  gaze  with 
bright  eyes,  a  faint,  provoking  smile  on  her  lips. 

In  moments  of  excitement  a  man  often  does 
the  thing  that  surprises  himself  more  than  the 

world.      Something    within    Brooke    suddenly 

1 86 


BLUE  ANCHOR  INN 

gave  way.     He  reached  forward  and  gathered 
the  girl  in  his  arms. 

There  was  a  moment  of  silence.  The  yawl 
wavered  in  its  course.  He  released  her.  She 
stood  up  and  walked  slowly  toward  the  bow. 


187 


CHAPTER  XVIII 

THE  disappearance  simultaneously  of  Miss 
Grey,  Brooke,  and  the  yawl  had  thrown 
the  island  into  a  turmoil.  When  the  man  and 
girl  had  not  returned  after  the  clearing  away  of 
the  storm,  Gilpin  and  Halsey  and  Captain  John 
had  sauntered  down  in  that  direction  to  see  what 
could  have  detained  them,  and  had  come  upon 
the  vacant  anchorage.  A  search  had  immedi- 
ately been  started.  The  entire  resident  and  non- 
resident male  population  had  piled  into  the 
motor  boat  and  started  out  to  spread  the  news. 
They  had  made  a  landing  at  the  nearest  life- 
saving  station,  had  the  news  telephoned  up  and 
down  the  entire  coast,  filled  the  tanks  with  gaso- 
line, and  made  a  hundred  mile  cruise  out  to  sea 
and  back  without  finding  a  single  sail.  It  was 
ten  o'clock  in  the  morning  when  they  had  re- 
turned, worn  out  and  discouraged  ;  and  on  the 

instant  a  half  dozen  other  craft,  seeking  news- 

188 


BLUE  ANCHOR  INN 

paper  notoriety,  had  put  out  from  half  a  dozen 
places  ;  but  all  they  had  discovered  of  importance 
on  the  high  seas  was  each  other. 

It  was  generally  acknowledged  that  if  the  yawl 
were  afloat  it  must  be  on  a  line  south-by-east 
from  the  island,  the  wind  having  blown  steadily 
from  a  point  north-by-west  all  during  the  storm. 
It  was  also  acknowledged  that  having  been  car- 
ried before  the  wind  for  some  four  or  five  hours, 
they  must  have  traveled  a  distance  of  about 
fifty  or  sixty  miles.  That  rendered  very  definite 
the  spot  where  the  craft  must  have  been,  if  afloat, 
at  the  end  of  the  storm.  And  furthermore,  since 
the  wind  after  the  storm  had  been  exceedingly 
light,  the  yawl  could  not  have  sailed  very  far 
away  from  that  point.  When,  therefore,  the 
several  expeditions  that  went  out  to  discover  her 
and  rescue  her  in  triumph  failed  to  find  her 
within  a  radius  of  fifteen  miles  of  a  spot  fifty 
miles  south-by-east  of  Lugger  Island,  and  the 
life-saving  service  failed  to  report  any  vessel 
ashore,  there  was  but  one  inference  to  be  drawn. 
She  had  gone  down.  At  the  end  of  the  second 

day  that  was  the  accepted  version.     The  theory 

189 


BLUE  ANCHOR  INN 

that  Brooke  might  have  kept  out  to  sea  did  not 
occur  to  them. 

"  Ned,"  said  Mrs.  Gilpin,  on  the  morning  of 
the  second  day,  "  what  am  I  going  to  do  about 
Mrs.  Brooke?" 

"  Do  about  her  ?  " 

"  Well,  I  ought  to  say  something.  If  Roger 
was — is  her  husband,  we  cannot  sit  by  and  take 
no  notice  of  her." 

Ned  Gilpin  thought  a  moment. 

"  Well,"  he  said,  "  you  had  better  do  the  best 
you  can." 

Mrs.  Gilpin  thereupon  made  a  call  upon  Mrs. 
Brooke.  Who  can  blame  her  if,  into  this  errand 
of  mercy,  there  might  have  crept  an  element  of 
curiosity  as  well  as  of  commiseration.  There 
can  be  no  doubt  in  the  world  that  when  she  first 
put  on  her  stiffly  starched,  white  dress,  her  most 
formal  and  uncomfortable  summer  hat  and  her 
hot  lisle-thread  gloves,  in  preparation  for  the 
visit,  no  thought  was  in  her  mind  but  the  sadness 
of  the  occasion. 

As  a  matter  of  fact  the  seriousness  of  the  sit- 
uation had  been  borne  down  upon  them  all  in  the 

190 


BLUE  ANCHOR  INN 

last  few  days.  Here  was  an  occurrence  of  the 
same  sort  they  had  seen  announced  with  large 
headings  a  thousand  times  in  the  daily  papers  and 
had  passed  by  without  comment  as  being  part  of 
the  regular  order  of  things.  But  when  such  a 
thing  befell,  as  it  did,  a  person  who  might  be 
said  to  be  a  member  of  their  own  household,  the 
tragedy  of  it  left  them  stunned.  Mrs.  Gilpin  had 
had  no  knowledge  of  sudden  death  save  only  in 
such  vague  ways  as,  for  instance,  having  been 
present  in  the  house  when  an  aged  uncle  who, 
alive  and  well  at  breakfast  time,  had  died  in  his 
chair  before  noon.  Therefore,  her  mind  was 
now  numbed  and  incredulous.  She  could  not 
quite  believe  that  the  thing  had  happened.  She 
found  herself  providing  for  four  people  in  the 
dining-room,  and  when  her  husband  and  Halsey 
came  down,  alone,  ready  for  dinner,  once  or  twice 
she  had  waited  a  moment,  and  then  suddenly 
realized  that  there  was  no  one  else  to  come.  On 
such  occasions,  the  tragedy  of  it  struck  her 
with  redoubled  force,  as  if  she  had  heard  of 
the  accident  for  the  first  time.  It  was  after 

one    of    these    occurrences    that    she    decided, 

191 


BLUE  ANCHOR  INN 

with  genuine  womanly  sympathy,  to  visit  Mrs. 
Brooke. 

But,  as  she  walked  along  the  sandy  street,  suf- 
focating but  beautiful  to  behold,  her  sympathetic 
impulses  and  even  her  eyes,  still  slightly  red  and 
hot  (from  tears  shed  when  her  brain  had,  without 
warning,  begun  to  speculate  as  to  what  she 
would  have  done  if  it  had  been  her  husband  who 
had  disappeared),  could  not  gloss  over  the  fact 
that  the  imp  of  curiosity  had  a  prominent  place 
in  her  heart. 

Indeed,  it  would  have  been  hard  for  him  not  to 
have  been  there.  For  how  could  one  commiser- 
ate a  person  for  the  loss  of  her  husband,  when 
one  was  not  at  all  certain  he  was  her  husband, 
without  wondering  if,  in  the  seriousness  of  the 
situation,  the  truth  would  at  last  be  disclosed. 
So,  while  pity  and  sympathy  sat  enthroned  in  the 
very  center  of  her  heart,  the  imp  curiosity  was, 
if  not  seated  beside  them,  at  least  occupying  a 
prominent  position  on  the  top  step  of  the  throne. 

Mrs.  Brooke's  coal-black  servant  took  her 
name  up  and  returned  immediately.  Yes,  Mrs. 

Brooke  would  see  her,  and  would  be  down  in  a 

192 


BLUE  ANCHOR  INN 

moment.  Mrs.  Gilpin's  heart  thumped.  What 
would  she  look  like  when  she  came?  Would 
she  be  red-eyed  and  pale  ?  Or  would  she  be 
cheerful  and  willing  to  discuss  the  event  impar- 
tially? It  was  rather  difficult  for  the  caller  to 
properly  adjust  the  scenery,  when  she  was  so 
uninformed  of  the  nature  of  the  play  that  was  to 
be  staged. 

Presently,  after  about  ten  minutes'  suspense, 
the  lady  in  question  swept  into  the  room.  If 
Mrs.  Gilpin  had  expected  to  get  the  hint  the  in- 
stant she  appeared  and  arrange  the  scene  ac- 
cordingly, she  was  disappointed.  Mrs.  Brooke 
exhibited  the  same  careful,  spotless  attire,  the 
same  faultlessly  accurate  arrangement  of  her 
hair,  the  same  well-groomed  hands  and  the  same 
inscrutably  pleasant  untear-stained  face  she  would 
have  shown  had  her  whole  family  been  drowned 
at  sea.  For  the  life  of  her  Mrs.  Gilpin  couldn't 
tell  whether  it  was  indifference,  or  bravado.  It 
certainly  was  true  that,  whatever  her  motive  may 
have  been,  it  was  Mrs.  Brooke's  first  thought  not 
to  let  any  one  see  her  at  anything  else  but  her 
best. 

193 


BLUE  ANCHOR  INN 

"  Well,"  she  said,  instantly,  with  no  intonation, 
"  is  there  any  news  ?  " 

It  immediately  occurred  to  Mrs.  Gilpin  that 
she  had  perhaps  raised  the  other  woman's  hopes 
by  coming,  and  she  felt  as  if  it  were  almost  her 
own  fault  that  there  was  no  news. 

"  No,"  she  said,  uncomfortably.  "  But  no  news 
is  good  news." 

Mrs.  Brooke  gazed  at  her  visitor  calmly. 

"  I  don't  think  that  is  exactly  true,"  she  re- 
marked. 

"  In  a  way,  though,"  replied  the  other  quickly, 
groping  about  for  something  comforting  to  say, 
"it  is  true.  While  of  course  it  is  tremendous 
suspense  for  you  to  hear  nothing  at  all,  yet  as 
long  as  you  don't  hear  there  is  always  a  chance 
that  they  will  come  back  to  you." 

It  was  a  very  good  speech,  but  she  used  the 
pronoun  "you"  three  times  too  often.  Mrs. 
Brooke  raised  her  eyebrows. 

"Yes,"  she  returned,  "as  long  as  we  don't 
hear  there  is  always  a  chance  that  they  will  come 
back — to  us." 

She  added  the  last  two  words  almost  as  an  af- 
194 


BLUE  ANCHOR  INN 

terthought.  Mrs.  Gilpin  colored.  It  was  just  as 
if  Mrs.  Brooke  had  gathered  up  all  the  sympathy 
she  had  presented  and  put  it  back  again  in  her  lap. 

"  Mr.  Brooke,"  she  went  on,  bravely,  "  was 
such  a  comfort  and  constant  joy  to  us.  It  was 
only  last  week  I  told  Mr.  Gilpin  he  was  the  most 
delightful  person  we  ever  had  had  visit  us." 

"Yes,"  replied  Mrs.  Brooke  without  apparent 
interest.  "  I  should  certainly  think  you  would 
miss  him." 

Mrs.  Gilpin  grew  cold. 

"  We,  at  least,  do,"  she  said,  with  tight  lips. 

There  was  a  pause.  She  tried  to  be  calm. 
Only  one  thought  restrained  the  rising  tide  of 
anger.  The  lady  before  her,  if  she  were  Roger 
Brooke's  wife,  was  his  wife  under  very  trying 
circumstances.  It  would  have  been  hard  for  her 
herself,  under  similar  circumstances,  to  have  ac- 
cepted sympathy  from  an  acquaintance  of  a  few 
weeks'  standing  and  to  have  confessed  as  her 
husband  a  man  whom  she  could  not  but  be 
eternally  aware  she  had  bought — just  as  she 
would  have  bought  a  parasol.  Mrs.  Gilpin's 
temper  stopped  in  its  rise. 

195 


BLUE  ANCHOR  INN 

"  /  miss  him,"  she  said,  gently.  Her  idea  was 
to  keep  the  talk  still  in  that  quarter,  so  that  she 
might  offer  her  sympathy  more  indirectly. 

The  other  still  gazed  at  her  with  her  cool  im- 
personal regard. 

"  You  miss  him,"  she  said,  speculatively. 

"  I  miss  him  very  much,"  replied  Mrs.  Gilpin, 
innocently,, 

For  the  first  time  the  eyes  opposite  showed  a 
gleam  of  the  personality  within.  Was  that 
jealousy?  Or  if  it  were  not  jealousy,  was  it  only 
the  effort  of  a  woman,  for  some  reason  in  a  false 
position  from  which  she  could  not  extricate  her- 
self, to  assume  the  offensive  ?  At  any  rate  her 
eyes  showed  fire. 

"  Does  Mr.  Gilpin  miss  him  too  ?  "  she  asked, 
with  the  air  of  a  person  touching  a  match  to  the 
precise  center  of  a  charge  of  powder. 

Mrs.  Gilpin  sprang  to  her  feet.  The  blood 
flamed  in  her  face. 

But  just  at  that  moment  Mr.  Still  entered  the 
room. 


CHAPTER  XIX 

MR.  STILL'S  presence  always  succeeded  in 
breaking  off  any  existing  situation  and 
starting  an  entirely  new  one. 

"  Mrs.  Gilpin,"  he  said,  blandly,  all  indications 
of  storm  in  the  atmosphere  being  lost  upon  him, 
"  I  believe  you  have  a  map  of  this  part  of  the 
coast  prepared  by  the  Geodetic  Survey." 

It  was  a  ridiculously  matter-of-fact  question  to 
ask  a  woman  trembling  all  over  as  she  was  with 
passion. 

"  Yes,"  she  said,  however,  not  knowing  whether 
there  was  one  or  not. 

"When  you  go,"  proceeded  the  old  gentle- 
man, tactfully,  "  I  will  step  over  to  your  house 
with  you  and  borrow  it." 

Mrs.  Gilpin,  with  a  scarcely  perceptible  nod  to 
her  hostess,  swept  from  the  room.  Mr.  Still, 
thrusting  his  venerable  straw  hat  down  over  his 
head  until  it  rested  firmly  on  his  ears,  trotted 

along  amiably  beside  her.     When  she  gave  him 

197 


BLUE  ANCHOR  INN 

the  map  he  tucked  it  under  his  arm  and  disap- 
peared down  the  sandy  street. 

"  He  wants  it  to  play  with,"  she  confided  irri- 
tably to  her  husband.  "  He  will  doubtless  come 
back  within  an  hour  with  a  pin  stuck  in  the  exact 
spot  where  the  yawl  went  down." 

And,  true  to  her  prediction,  he  did  return 
within  the  hour,  but  not  with  a  pin  stuck  in  the 
map.  Instead  he  had  traced  a  wabbly  black  line 
in  pencil  running  from  the  island  to  the  point 
where  it  seemed  the  sailboat  must  have  been 
when  the  storm  ceased  and  the  wind  fell.  Then 
he  showed  that  there  was  a  current  setting  to 
eastward  at  this  place — showed  it  marked  plainly 
on  the  map — which  must  have  carried  the  boat 
out  from  shore  and  away  from  the  spot  where 
every  one  had  been  looking  for  it,  so  that,  sup- 
posing the  boat  still  to  be  afloat,  if  its  occupants 
were  endeavoring  to  return  over  the  same  course 
they  went,  they  would  be  carried  to  seaward  and 
miss  the  island  altogether. 

Gilpin  and  Halsey  listened  with  polite  con- 
sideration, and  then  attempted  to  show  him  why 

this  hypothesis  was  an  impossible  one,  and  how, 

198 


BLUE  ANCHOR  INN 

had  the  yawl  been  afloat,  it  would  have  been  dis- 
covered at  this  particular  point  at  such  a  time 
or  at  that  particular  point  at  such  another  time ; 
but  it  was  of  no  use,  for  the  arguments  he  could 
not  answer  the  old  gentleman  would  not  hear, 
and  the  ones  he  consented  to  hear  he  refuted  so 
entirely  to  his  own  satisfaction — if  not  to  any  one 
else's — that  he  became  more  convinced  than  ever 
of  the  righteousness  of  his  cause  ;  and  therefore 
more  urgent  that  they  should  take  the  motor 
boat  straightway,  go  to  the  spot  indicated  on  the 
map,  and  bring  back  the  yawl.  At  last,  exas- 
perated beyond  measure,  and  seeing  that  noth- 
ing would  satisfy  him  except  an  actual  visit  to 
the  spot,  Gilpin  said  he  could  go  out  in  the  motor 
boat  with  Willy  and  convince  himself  as  to 
whether  the  yawl  was  there  or  not.  Whereupon 
Gilpin  and  Halsey,  exhausted  and  hoarse,  retired 
from  the  field  of  action,  and  sought  quiet  and  re- 
pose. 

"  But,"  remonstrated  Willy,  when  informed  of 
the  expedition,  "  he's  a  bug,  Mr.  Gilpin.  The 
elevators  don't  run  to  his  top  story  no  more." 

"  Well,  he  won't  hurt  you." 
199 


BLUE  ANCHOR  INN 

"  I  wouldn't  trust  him,  Mr.  Gilpin.  Them  fel- 
lows always  has  carving  knives  stuck  under  their 
vests." 

"  If  he  gets  violent  step  on  his  feet,"  suggested 
Gilpin  on  the  spur  of  the  moment.  "  That  al- 
ways fixes  them." 

With  this  thorough  understanding  of  how  to 
manage  such  a  desperate  character,  Willy 
blithely  set  about  getting  ready  for  the  trip. 
He  was  exceedingly  dubious  about  spending 
several  hours  alone  with  the  old  gentleman,  for 
above  all  things  he  loved  to  talk,  and  talking, 
with  Mr.  Still  as  audience,  he  conceived  would 
be  more  of  an  exercise  than  a  pastime.  There- 
fore, when  he  saw  Hester  leaving  the  house 
after  the  completion  of  the  few  duties  that  fell  to 
her  lot  after  luncheon  on  the  occasion  of  her 
afternoon  out,  he  hailed  her  joyously. 

"  What  ye  goin'  to  do,  kid  ?  "  he  cried,  when 
she  approached  the  landing. 

Hester  went  over  the  various  possible  things 
that  might  occupy  her  afternoon,  and  then  with 
a  fine  recklessness  vetoed  them  all. 

"  Nothing,"  she  replied,  blandly. 
200 


BLUE  ANCHOR  INN 

"  You're  elected.  Step  right  aboard.  Sight- 
seeing motor  boat  starts  in  a  few  moments." 

"  Oh,  you  silly." 

She  hesitated  on  the  shore,  with  one  finger 
dubiously  resting  on  her  under  lip. 

"  I  guess  you're  sort  of  thinkin'  it  over,  ain't 
you  ?  "  demanded  Willy  presently,  screwing  the 
top  on  the  gasoline  tank. 

"  What  would  Mr.  Gilpin  say  ?  " 

"  Listen,  little  one.  Who  do  you  think  is  the 
chauffer  of  this  ferry-boat?  Mr.  Gilpin  is  only 
the  owner.  I'm  the  boss.  Do  you  get  me  ?  " 

Hester  giggled. 

"  Willy  Holdefer,"  she  exclaimed,  bewildered. 
"  How  you  talk  ! " 

But  still  she  did  not  come  aboard.  Willy 
stepped  ashore  with  firmness  in  his  eye.  She 
backed  away  from  him  laughing,  but  he  caught 
her  and  swung  her  up  into  his  arms.  She 
screamed,  as  a  matter  of  course — then  he  set  her 
down  in  the  launch  by  the  wheel.  This  is  a 
primitive  way  of  dealing  with  woman,  but  has 
been  often  found  efficacious.  Hester  was  far 

from  showing  resentment. 

20 1 


BLUE  ANCHOR  INN 

"  I  declare  I  wouldn't  of  thought  you  were  that 
strong !  "  she  observed. 

"  Strong !  "  cried  Willy.  "  I  can  tie  a  lead  pipe 
into  a  knot  with  one  hand." 

Hester  was  genuinely  astonished. 

"  No  1 "  she  exclaimed. 

Mr.  Still  came  shuffling  down  the  board  walk 
at  this  juncture,  and  was  stowed  away  in  a  safe 
corner  with  his  map,  field-glasses,  note-book  and 
stub  of  a  pencil  to  amuse  him.  Willy  started 
the  machine,  and  they  fared  forth  on  their  jour- 
ney to  salvage  the  yawl. 

"  He's  so  hard  of  hearin'  he  can't  understand 
a  word  we  say,  can  he  ?  "  demanded  the  girl. 

Willy  glanced  at  the  old  man  thoughtfully. 

"  That's  too  much  for  yours  truly,  Hester,  "  he 
replied.  "Sometimes  he's  deef,  and  sometimes 
he's  on  the  job.  But  I  dope  it  out  like  this,  you 
understand : — hearin',  to  him,  is  woik,  just  like 
me  and  you  doin '  'rithmetic  ;  and  if  he  ain't  inter- 
ested in  the  talk,  he  don't  take  the  trouble  to  hear. 
But  if  he's  interested,  he  starts  all  the  machinery 
in  his  bean,  and  he  makes  it  his  business  to  listen." 

They  sailed   directly  east,  at  the  direction  of 
202 


BLUE  ANCHOR  INN 

Mr.  Still.  The  old  man  sat  forward  on  the  deck- 
house like  an  allegorical  statue  of  Discovery, 
and  scanned  the  empty  horizon  for  a  familiar 
sail.  Hester  and  Willy  sat  in  the  stern-sheets 
warily  watching  the  old  man. 

"Take  it  from  me,  little  one,"  Willy  observed 
presently  ;  "he'  s  clean  bug,  but  every  once  in  a 
while  a  real  idea  moves  in  and  takes  possession. 
Now  this  thought  of  his  about  the  yawl  listens 
good.  He  dopes  it  out  that  since  the  boat  didn't 
go  ashore,  there's  ten  chances  to  one  that  she 
didn't  sink  in  the  ocean.  Bone,  as  the  French 
waiters  say.  If  they  didn't  sink  in  the  briny,  and 
they're  still  alive,  you  understand,  they're  sailing 
right  straight  for  the  island,  and  not  standing 
still." 

"I  do  declare,"  said  Hester. 

"  Now,  my  private  opinion,"  went  on  Willy, 
"  is  that  if  it  hadn't  been  for  the  current,  which 
the  old  party  discovered  carrying  her  out  to  sea, 
the  yawl  ought  to  have  come  back  to  the  island 
about  to-night,  but  with  the  current  carryin'  her 
out  she  will  pass  twenty-five  or  thirty  miles  east 

of  it." 

203 


BLUE  ANCHOR  INN 

They  continued  on  their  course  until  dark, 
making  about  eight  miles  an  hour  in  the  rough 
sea.  Then  they  saw  the  running  lights  of  a  boat 
to  south  of  them.  As  they  came  nearer  to  it 
they  saw  in  the  moonlight  that  it  was  a  yawl. 
The  excitement  aboard  was  at  fever  heat.  The 
old  gentleman  changed  from  his  far-seeing  to 
his  near-seeing  glasses  at  least  twenty  times  in 
one  minute,  referring  first  to  the  map  and  then 
to  the  sail  in  the  distance. 

"  I  told  you,"  he  cried,  "  I  told  you  we  should 
find  them." 

Willy  eyed  him  warily. 

"  You're  the  Christopher  Columbus,"  he  said. 

He  let  Hester  steer  while  he  went  forward  and 
signaled  to  the  yawl,  and  after  half  an  hour  they 
came  abreast  of  it  and  had  the  satisfaction  of 
finding  it  really  was  Mr.  Still's  boat,  with  Brooke 
and  Miss  Grey  aboard.  But  the  situation  when 
they  got  there  seemed  to  be  somewhat  strained, 
for  Brooke  was  steering,  and  Miss  Grey  sat  in 
the  bow. 


204 


CHAPTER  XX 

WILLY  stood  at  the  wheel  of  the  launch. 
They  were  heading  for  the  alternate  red 
and  white  flash  of  the  light  on  the  spit  south  of 
Lugger  Island.  It  was  a  very  quiet  party.  On 
the  one  boat  Brooke  sat  alone  aft  by  the  wheel 
and  Miss  Grey  sat  alone  forward  by  the  bow- 
sprit. On  the  other,  Mr.  Still,  his  part  of  the 
work  accomplished,  slept  the  sleep  of  the  just  and 
righteous  on  the  long  cushioned  seat ;  Willy  was 
full  of  the  responsibility  of  sailing  home ;  and 
Hester,  sitting  beside  him  with  her  hands  folded, 
was  thinking  of  a  number  of  things.  Presently, 
a  little  preparatory  wave  of  action  ran  through 
her,  and  she  edged  closer  to  the  man  at  the  wheel. 

"  Say,  Willy,"  she  whispered,  somewhat  awe- 
struck at  the  idea,  "  do  you  think  they're  in 
love  ?  " 

The  skipper  looked  at  her  in  astonishment. 

"  Who  V  ye  talkin'  about,  little  one  ?  "  he  de- 
manded. 

205 


BLUE  ANCHOR  INN 

Hester  looked  at  the  two  on  the  yawl  and  back 
again  to  Willy.  Willy,  thereupon,  made  an  offi- 
cial survey  for  himself,  as  though  he  had  never 
seen  them  before.  Then  he  consulted  his  com- 
pass and  brought  the  launch's  head  over  a  point 
or  two. 

"  Two  much  for  little  Willy,"  he  confided  to 
her  presently.  "  I  can't  keep  hep  to  the  doin's  of 
all  these  people.  All  the  dope  seemed  to  be 
pickin'  Mr.  Brooke  for  a  winner  with  Mrs. 
Brooke — previous  to  this  storm." 

Hester  nodded  a  sympathizing  head. 

"  But  what  gets  to  me  is,"  Willy  went  on, 
"  what's  this  Mrs.  Brooke  doin'  down  here,  any- 
way ?  There's  somethin'  phoney  about  that  dame. 
She's  a-playin'  this  game  with  an  ace  in  her  cuff, 
you  take  it  from  me.  How  do  I  know  ?  Well, 
did  you  ever  hear  of  her  tellin'  any  one  she  was 
a  widow  ?  Or  sayin'  who  her  hubby  was  ?  No. 
And  when  you  hear  Mrs.  Gilpin  and  Mr.  Gilpin 
talkin',  all  they  know  is  she's  Mrs.  Brooke.  I 
tell  you  she's  got  a  scheme." 

"  Is  she  an  adventuress  ?  "  demanded  Hester, 

thrilled. 

206 


BLUE  ANCHOR  INN 

Willy  laughed. 

"  You  talk  like  Bertha  the  Sewing-Machine 
Girl,"  he  commented.  "  No,  she  ain't  no  flim- 
flam artist.  But,  believe  me,  she's  got  the 
kibosh  on  Mr.  Brooke  for  fair.  One  day  I  says 
to  Mr.  Brooke  casual-like,  when  he  was  in  the 
launch,  '  Mr.  Brooke,'  I  says  (just  as  if  the 
idea  hadn't  ever  entered  me  head  before),  '  is 
Mrs.  Brooke  a  relative  of  yourn  ? '  And  Mr. 
Brooke  he  got  red  and  says,  '  Only  be  mar- 
riage,' he  says,  'only  be  marriage.'  And,  say, 
I  thought  Mr.  Gilpin  would  throw  a  duck-fit 
a-laughin'." 

"Ain't  folks  silly  s'mtimes  ?  "  commented  Hes- 
ter. 

Willy  peered  anxiously  into  the  binnacle. 

"  And  let  me  tell  you  this,"  he  observed  pres- 
ently. "  I  think  I  got  the  answer." 

"  No  !  "  she  cried,  excitedly. 

"  Surest  thing  you  know.  I've  been  sitting 
tight  and  usin'  me  eyes  and  me  ears.  I've  heard 
a  thing  or  two,  and  I've  seen  a  thing  or  two  ; 
and  I've  got  it  all  doped  out  that  Mrs.  Brooke  is 

Mr.  Brooke's  wife." 

207 


BLUE  ANCHOR  INN 

Willy  looked  straight  before  him.  Hester's 
eyes  grew  to  be  saucers.  Then  she  gasped. 

"  You  don't  tell  me  !  "  she  cried. 

"  Don't  tell  you  ?  I'm  a-shoutin'  it  in  yer  ear. 
Didn't  I  put  you  wise  to  the  idea  that  they  run 
that  yawl  in  the  mud  a-purpose  the  first  time 
they  comes  to  the  island  ?  And  didn't  Mr. 
Brooke  beat  it  the  first  peep  he  got  at  the  dame 
an'  have  all  his  eats  brought  up  to  his  room  un- 
til he  thought  she'd  cut  loose  and  left  ?  Well,  I 
guess  yes.  And  what's  she  hangin'  round  the 
island  for  now  ?  'Cause  she's  so  tickled  to  death 
with  it  she  can't  let  go  ?  No  1  '  Nevaire,'  as 
my  friend  Henri  the  waiter  says.  She's  stayin' 
here  because  she's  got  the  joker  in  her  hand,  and 
she's  waitin'  for  the  chance  to  slip  it  in." 

Hester  was  bewildered. 

"  But,"  she  asserted,  in  her  bucolic  simplicity, 
"  if  she  was  his  wife,  he'd  live  in  her  house  in- 
stead of  in  Mr.  Gilpm's." 

Willy  shook  his  head  wisely. 

"  Not  no  more.  Anything  but  that  when  they 
gets  sick  of  each  other.  Marriages  nowadays  is 

like  automobiles.     You  got  to  get  your  hooks  on 

208 


BLUE  ANCHOR  INN 

a  new  one  every  year ;  most  guys  get  in  low 
spirits  as  soon  as  they're  wise  to  the  idea  their 
wives  is  last  year's  models.  So  they  get  Renoed 
and  renewed." 

"  What  say  ?  "  asked  the  girl,  blankly. 

"  They  buy  a  divorce  and  try  again." 

Hester's  lips  drew  themselves  into  a  tight 
line. 

"  I  never  did  like  that  Mrs.  Brooke.  So 
there  !  "  She  delivered  this  opinion  with  the  air 
of  a  Christian  martyr  who  expected  to  be  thrown 
to  the  lions  for  it  instantly  after. 

"  That  makes  two  of  us,  kid." 

"  I'd  rather  see  Mr.  Brooke  marry  Miss  Grey," 
went  on  Hester. 

"  Nothin'  to  it.     He's  froze  to  the  cushion." 

She  meditated  seriously  for  a  long  while. 

"  Mustn't  it  be  awful  not  to  be  allowed  to 
marry  the  one  you  want  to  marry  ?  "  she  said,  at 
length,  in  a  burst  of  wisdom. 

Willy  leaned  forward  and  carefully  polished 
the  glass  of  the  binnacle  with  a  piece  of  cotton- 
waste. 

"  Fierce  ! "  he  exclaimed,  presently. 
209 


BLUE  ANCHOR  INN 

The  girl  twined  her  handkerchief  in  and  out 
between  her  fingers. 

"  Say,  Hester." 

"  Um-huh ! " 

"  Mr.  Gilpin,"  he  began,  thoughtfully,  "  says 
he's  got  to  have  an  automobile  next  winter — 
needs  it  in  his  business." 

"  Oh,  my  ! "     No  especial  interest 

"And  I'm  to  be  the  chauffer,  understand? 
Now  I  sings  a  little  song  to  meself  like  this — I 
says,  Why  don't  Hester  get  on  the  job  and  be 
Mrs.  Gilpin's  maid?" 

Her  interest  revived  somewhat. 

"  I'd  just  love  it.     But  ma  and  pa " 

" Oh,  forget  that"  His  voice  had  an  air  of 
finality. 

She  held  one  corner  of  her  handkerchief  in  her 
hand  and  pulled  consciously  at  the  other.  She 
was  a  child  of  the  people,  and  like  an  alert  young 
animal,  she  recognized  pursuit  afar  off. 

Willy  threw  the  wheel  over  three  spokes. 

"  Hester,"  he  said,  leaning  forward,  "  'jever 
think  of  gettin'  married?" 

She  shook  her  head. 

210 


BLUE  ANCHOR  INN 

Willy  scratched  his  head,  and  frowned  as  if 
uncertain  how  to  proceed.  But  an  idea  occurred 
to  him. 

"  That  is,"  he  exclaimed,  "  not  until  now  ?  " 

She  did  not  look  up,  but  she  reached  over  and 
gave  him  a  little  shy  push  with  her  hand. 

A  nudge  to  the  wise  is  sufficient  Willy 
steered  the  boat  with  one  hand. 

"  Say,  kid,"  he  whispered,  "  you're  the  only 
goil  I  ever  loved." 

It  was  the  refrain  of  twenty  cheap  popular 
songs,  but  it  was  real  music  to  her.  She  hid  her 
flushed  face  in  the  shoulder  of  his  flannel  shirt. 
This  might  have  gone  on  for  a  long  while,  had 
not  Brooke  called  out  from  the  yawl. 

"  Say,  Willy,"  he  cried,  "  are  you  trying  to  do 
the  grape-vine  twist  with  these  boats  ?  " 

Hester  sprang  away.  Willy  looked  ruefully 
astern  at  the  atrocious  wake  he  had  left.  Then 
he  laughed  sheepishly. 

"  Mr.  Brooke,"  he  said,  "  can  you  come 
aboard?" 

The    launch   was    lashed    beside    the    yawl. 

Brooke  jumped  aboard. 

211 


BLUE  ANCHOR  INN 

"  Mr.  Brooke,"  he  stammered,  in  an  agony  of 
embarrassment,  "  Hester  and  me — we've  fixed 
it  up." 

"  Good,"  cried  Brooke,  and  shook  hands  with 
them  both.  Hester,  her  face  scarlet,  could  not 
raise  her  eyes  from  the  deck.  They  were  like 
two  criminals  discovered  in  their  evil  deeds. 
Brooke  tried  to  cheer  them  up.  And  as  he 
looked  at  them  both,  a  great  feeling  of  envy 
rose  up  in  his  heart. 

"  God  bless  you,"  he  cried,  "  God  bless  you 
both." 

He  went  quickly  back  to  his  place  on  the 
yawl 


212 


CHAPTER  XXI 

WHEN  the  town  clock  (a  brilliantly  nickeled 
timepiece  with  an  alarm  attachment, 
which  reposed  on  the  cherry  bureau  in  Captain 
John's  room)  pointed  to  two  in  the  morning,  the 
mayor  of  Lugger  Island  rose  and  made  a  survey 
of  the  stretch  of  sea  shining  before  him  in  the 
moonlight.  What  he  saw  warranted  executive 
action.  Selecting  at  random  several  pieces  of  ap- 
parel most  easily  put  on,  he  was  presently  in  the 
main  thoroughfare  of  the  metropolis,  excitedly 
summoning  a  special  session  of  the  town  council. 
The  town  council,  in  their  turn,  picking  up 
those  garments  which  came  most  easily  to  hand, 
swarmed  out  upon  the  streets.  The  wives, 
daughters,  and  the  first  cousin  of  the  town  coun- 
cil, realizing  that  on  such  a  momentous  occasion 
any  formal  dressing  would  be  in  bad  taste, 
garbed  themselves  promptly  in  sundry  conveni- 
ent coverings  and  appeared  in  public  with  the 
celerity  of  city  firemen.  Seldom  of  late  years 

213 


BLUE  ANCHOR  INN 

had  such  a  concourse  of  people  crowded  the 
streets  of  Lugger  Island  at  such  an  hour  of  the 
night.  In  fact,  it  may  have  been  the  general 
belief  up  to  that  time  that  there  was  no  such 
hour  as  two  o'clock  in  the  morning.  Such  was 
their  regularity  of  habit  that  the  island  might 
well  have  been  removed  from  its  position  at  nine 
every  evening  and  put  on  a  shelf  until  five  the 
next  morning,  and  the  space  it  occupied  used  for 
some  other  purpose.  Therefore,  to  have  the  en- 
tire population  awake  and  socially  inclined  at 
such  a  wicked  and  dissipated  hour  thrilled  them 
through  and  through.  The  fact  that  Captain 
John's  spouse,  who  was  supposed  to  be  the  ex- 
ample of  deportment  for  the  city,  had  been  able 
to  find  only  one  stocking  (a  state  of  affairs  which 
would  have  shocked  the  community  beyond  rec- 
ognition on  any  other  occasion)  was  considered 
excessively  funny  just  now.  In  fact,  all  barriers 
were  down.  With  the  possible  exception  of  the 
time  when  Captain  John  had  bought  a  derby  hat 
to  wear  to  a  funeral,  no  such  excitement  as  this 
had  touched  the  town  in  ten  years. 

"  The  lanch  is  coming  back,"  was  the  slogan 
214 


BLUE  ANCHOR  INN 

that  brought  this  seething  crowd  out  on  the 
streets.  And  sure  enough  there  in  the  distance 
was  the  launch,  towing  a  yawl. 

The  arrival  and  disembarking  of  the  long-lost 
mariners  and  their  rescuers  was  a  time  of  keen 
excitement  and  embarrassment  on  all  sides.  It 
was  embarrassing  to  Brooke  and  Miss  Grey,  be- 
cause they  were  not  used  to  such  publicity  and 
throngs  of  people.  It  was  embarrassing  to  the 
mayor,  because  he  felt  he  might  be  called  upon 
to  make  a  speech,  tendering  them  the  keys  of 
the  city.  In  reading  books  concerning  mayors 
and  the  duties  of  mayors,  he  had  discovered  that 
they  invariably  presented  people  with  the  keys 
of  the  city  ;  but  as  the  only  keys  in  his  posses- 
sion were  the  key  to  his  dory  and  the  key  to  his 
tool  house — which  were  unfortunately  in  his 
other  trousers  anyway — the  ceremony  did  not 
seem  appropriate.  He  therefore  did  the  simplest 
and  most  Jeflersonian  thing.  He  stood  on  the 
shore  and  shook  them  by  the  hand  as  they 
landed,  saying  to  each,  "You  done  well,  sir,"  re- 
gardless of  sex. 

This    democratic    ceremony    finished,    every 
215 


BLUE  ANCHOR  INN 

one  hastened  to  shake  hands  with  every  one 
else  and  all  heroes  were  permitted  to  retire  to 
their  beds.  The  great  concourse  of  people  were 
drunk  with  excitement.  The  sun  was  almost  up 
when  every  one  retired  to  bed  again,  and  break- 
fasts that  morning  were  hours  late.  But  conver- 
sation during  the  day  was  more  varied  and  en- 
tertaining than  it  had  been  for  years.  In  fact, 
the  townsfolk  seemed  to  have  actually  taken  an 
interest  in  being  alive. 

Things,  however,  gradually  got  down  to  the 
normal  again,  and  affairs  on  the  island  returned 
to  the  same  state  they  were  before  the  disappear- 
ance of  the  yawl.  Halsey  renewed  his  atten- 
tion to  Miss  Grey  as  though  no  interval  at  all  had 
intervened.  Captain  John  and  Mr.  Still  made 
further  depredations  on  the  crabs  residing  in  the 
channel.  When  not  otherwise  occupied,  Willy 
and  Hester  took  the  engine  on  the  launch  apart 
and  Willy  thoroughly  lubricated  all  its  parts  with 
oil  and  Albany  grease.  It  was  he  alone  who 
had  stood  between  the  town  of  Lugger  Island  and 
eternal  and  lasting  fame.  A  reporter,  an  actual 

reporter  from  a  real  city  paper,  had  made  a  visit 

216 


BLUE  ANCHOR  INN 

to  the  island  to  write  up  the  romantic  rescue. 
He  had  been  willing  to  print  names  and  photo- 
graphs of  everybody  concerned.  It  was  the 
chance  of  a  lifetime.  He  wanted  to  publish  por- 
traits of  Miss  Grey  and  Brooke  and  the  mayor 
of  the  town  with  a  pen-and-ink  picture  of  a  ship 
in  the  background  weathering  a  heavy  storm, 
and  head  it,  "  Society  Woman  Blown  to  Sea." 
But  Willy  had  forestalled  him.  He  had  occupied 
the  landing  with  a  boat-hook  and  fended  off  the 
reporter's  rowboat  when  he  attempted  to  come 
ashore.  The  explanation  of  the  glorious  pub- 
licity contemplated  had  fallen  on  deaf  ears.  At- 
tempts to  extricate  information  had  been  worse 
than  futile. 

The  reporter  had  at  last  begun  to  suspect  that 
the  information  he  was  getting  from  Willy  was 
more  or  less  extemporaneous,  so  he  presently  de- 
parted ;  and  Lugger  Island  lost  its  opportunity 
to  be  immortalized  in  print,  for  the  picture  the 
paper  published  in  its  story  of  the  episode,  with 
the  legend  under  it,  "  Cross  marks  spot  where 
yacht  went  adrift,"  was  not  of  Lugger  Island  at 

all,  but  was  taken  miles  down  the  coast. 

217 


BLUE  ANCHOR  INN 

After  having  thus  missed  fame  by  a  small 
margin,  the  island,  as  has  been  said,  settled  down 
to  the  even  tenor  of  its  ways.  And  Brooke,  see- 
ing every  one  else  doing  the  things  they  had 
been  doing  a  week  before,  went  to  see  Mrs. 
Brooke. 

He  discovered  her  on  the  beach,  her  immacu- 
late attire  protected  from  the  sands  by  a  steamer 
rug,  and  her  dainty  complexion  protected  from 
the  sun  by  a  pink  parasol.  She  wore  a  hat — a 
hat  of  cascades  of  white  laciness — do  they  call  it 
a  lingerie  hat?  Her  dress  was  starched  and 
modeled  and  ironed  till  its  folds  fell  and  hung 
with  the  careless  precision  of  a  picture.  Around 
its  hem  were  hemstitching  and  feather-stitch- 
ing, and  briar-stitching  (if  there  is  such  a 
thing)  and  every  other  variety  of  stitching 
known  to  the  civilized  world,  until  she  was 
almost  a  compendium  of  needlework.  The 
zenith  of  neatness  and  trimness  to  which  she 
had  attained  had  always  been  an  annoyance 
to  him.  If  ordinary  cleanliness  were  next  to 
godliness,  her  kind  of  cleanliness  would  have 

taken  her  into  heaven  at  a  bound.     It  made 

218 


BLUE  ANCHOR   INN 

her  inapproachable,  as  if  he  were  convers- 
ing with  an  exhibition  of  mere  sartorial  cor- 
rectness rather  than  with  a  live,  breathing 
person. 

"  How  does  it  feel,"  she  said,  "  to  be  a  ship- 
wrecked mariner  ?  " 

He  thought  a  moment,  wondering  if  any  one 
really  could  give  a  sane  answer  to  a  question  of 
that  sort. 

"Why,"  he  ventured,  "  I'm  sure  I'm  glad  it's 
over." 

"  You  had  very  good  company,  too  ! " 

She  said  this  with  an  attempt  at  archness. 

"  Miss  Grey  ?  " 

She  nodded. 

"Do  you  like  her?" 

"  Yes,"  he  replied.     "  Don't  you  ?  " 

"  Oh,"  she  said,  "  I'm  a  woman." 

"  That's  a  non-committal  reply." 

"  Oh,  no.  But  the  woman  who  is  liked  by 
men  only  as  much  as  by  other  women  isn't  very 
attractive." 

"Then    you    don't    think  women  like   each 

other  ?  "  he  asked  thoughtfully. 

219 


BLUE  ANCHOR  INN 

"  Of  course  they  do.  But  men  demand  fasci- 
nation." 

He  appeared  doubtful. 

"  Haven't  you  found  it  so  ?  " 

"  Oh,  I  don't  know.  To  me  a  woman  is  like 
a  picture  puzzle  with  several  pieces  missing." 

"  Didn't  Miss  Grey  fascinate  you  ?  " 

He  looked  at  her  quickly,  wondering  why  she 
came  back  to  that  subject. 

"  Oh,  no,"  he  replied.     "  Not  so  bad  as  that." 

She  looked  straight  before  her  at  the  sea. 
There  was  a  pause.  It  appeared  that  he  had 
offended  her. 

At  last  he  said : 

"  Have  you  enjoyed  your  visit  at  Lugger 
Island?" 

"  Oh,  yes." 

"  It  was  a  strange  accident  that  brought  you 
here." 

"  Yes,"  she  replied  shortly. 

Brooke  was  surprised  at  her  manner.  Some- 
thing had  piqued  her.  But  what  could  it  be? 
He  went  over  their  conversation  in  his  mind. 

He  was  no  judge  of  women,  but  a  friend  of  his, 

220 


BLUE  ANCHOR  INN 

who  knew  all  about  them,  had  once  given  him 
seven  axioms,  which  was  the  sum  of  all  human 
wisdom  concerning  the  sex.  Or  at  least  he  said 
so.  Brooke  had  forgotten  all  but  one,  and  that 
was,  "  If  a  woman  asks  a  man  about  another 
woman,  she  is  not  concerned  about  the  man  at 
all,  or  is  concerned  about  that  woman  a  great 
deal." 

He  was  worried.  She  had  to  be  concerned 
about  him  because  she  was  his  wife.  She  was 
concerned  about  the  other  woman,  of  course. 
Wives  were  always  concerned  about  the  twenty- 
three  million  other  women  in  the  world.  He 
had  heard  it  said  frequently.  And,  as  he  looked 
at  her,  realizing  that  she  was  his  wife  and  for 
all  time  would  be  his  wife,  it  brought  him  up 
with  a  round  turn.  He  did  not  love  her.  She 
meant  no  more  to  him  than  any  piece  of  prop- 
erty toward  which  he  had  certain  responsibilities 
and  duties.  But  the  net  was  around  him  and 
there  was  no  escape.  He  belonged  to  her.  He 
shrugged  his  shoulders,  and,  like  a  dutiful 
husband,  proceeded  to  attempt  to  alleviate  the 

situation. 

221 


,     BLUE  ANCHOR  INN 

"  What  made  you  think,"  he  said,  "that  Miss 
Grey  would  have  fascinations  for  a  man  ?  " 

She  seemed  to  be  glad  to  get  back  to  this 
topic. 

"  Oh,"  she  replied,  "three  days  alone  with  any 
woman,  and  the  stoutest  heart  is  gone." 

He  saw  an  opening. 

"Suppose  then  it  had  been  you  instead  of 
Miss  Grey." 

She  shot  forward  her  chin  and  set  her  teeth 
tightly. 

"  We  will  not  discuss  me,"  she  said  sharply. 

He  would  have  admitted  then  he  did  not 
understand  women.  Also  it  seemed  apparent 
that  he  was  not  very  congenial  with  his  wife. 

"You  seem  annoyed  at  the  idea?" 

"  I  am." 

"  Then  we  won't  discuss  it." 

"  I'm  very  glad." 

He  saw  that  his  effort  to  mollify  her  had  either 
not  been  appreciated  or  had  been  too  easily  seen 
through.  So  he  determined  to  defer  further 
conversation  until  another  time.  He  rose  to 

leave  her. 

222 


BLUE  ANCHOR  INN 

"  I   am  sorry  we  quarrel  so  soon,"   he  said. 
"  It   is   a   very   bad   beginning." 

"A   bad   beginning   of   what?"    she   replied, 
with  no  effort  to  understand. 
But  he  simply  nodded  and  went  away. 


223 


CHAPTER  XXII 

THEY  were  at  the  lunch  table  at  Gilpin's. 
Halsey,  beaming  like  a  contented  owl, 
arrived  just  in  time  to  have  himself  included  in 
the  grace  Gilpin  muttered  before  the  meal. 

"  Dita  made  the  remark "  he  began,  pres- 
ently. 

"  Who's  Dita  ?  "  interrupted  Gilpin,  blandly. 

"  Neddy !  Don't  be  so  obtuse,"  his  wife 
inserted. 

Gilpin's  humor  expanded. 

"  Oh,  yes,  yes,"  he  exclaimed,  comprehend- 
ingly.  "  Go  on  with  your  story.  You  said  : 
'  Ditto  made  the  remark '  " 

"  Dita,"  corrected  the  other,  embarrassed 

"  All  right     Only  what  did  she  say  ?  " 

"  Now,  Neddy,  don't  embarrass  him.  Can't 
you  see  he  is  in  love  ?  " 

Halsey  turned  pink. 

"  This  is  a  painful  subject,  I'm  sure,"  he  ob- 
served. "  What  I  was  about  to  remark  was  that 

224 


BLUE  ANCHOR  INN 

Miss  Grey  said  she  would  like  to  live  on  this 
island  all  the  time." 

The  head  of  the  house  and  his  wife  exchanged 
knowing  glances. 

"  Did  you  follow  up  that  lead  ?  "  observed  the 
latter. 

Halsey,  who  never  quite  understood  banter  of 
this  sort,  took  refuge  in  silence. 

"  Mrs.  Gilpin  caught  me  on  one  of  those  soft- 
pedal  ideas,"  said  Gilpin,  blandly. 

"  Oh,  Neddy,  I  didn't." 

Her  husband  grinned  seraphically. 

"  Well,"  he  conceded,  "  perhaps  it  was  some 
other  girl." 

Mrs.  Gilpin  maintained  her  dignity. 

"  Well,"  she  said,  turning  to  Halsey  and  ignor- 
ing completely  the  monster  who  was  her  husband, 
"  I  am  sure  you  would  make  her  a  fine  husband." 

Brooke  looked  intently  at  the  man  opposite 
him.  What  was  there  about  him  to  make  a 
good  husband  ?  He  said  to  himself :  "  How 
can  any  woman  ever  love  a  man  with  a  perpetual 
little  pimple  on  the  side  of  his  nose?"  He  was 

surprised  that  he  had  never  noticed  before  what 

225 


BLUE  ANCHOR  INN 

an  unprepossessing  person  Halsey  was.  He  was 
eccentric.  That  was  the  word  for  it.  Nobody 
but  an  eccentric  person  would  have  worn  a  purple 
tie  with  tiny  yellow  spots  on  it.  Could  any 
woman  be  happy  with  a  man  who  wore  a  purple 
tie  with  yellow  spots  on  it  ?  To  come  right  down 
to  brass  tacks,  how  could  any  woman  get  romance 
out  of  loving  a  man  who  wore  eye-glasses  ?  It 
was  inconceivable. 

"Well,  Roger,"  cried  Gilpin,  "stop  looking 
at  Halsey  and  tell  us  whether  you  think  he  would 
not  make  a  fine  husband." 

Brooke  roused  himself  suddenly. 

"  Would  he  make  her  a  good  husband  ?  " 

"  Yes.  You  have  seen  something  of  her.  You 
ought  to  know." 

"Yes,"  Brooke  found  himself  saying,  "I  ought 
to  know.  Halsey  has  a  great  deal  to  live  up  to. 
The  person  who  is  a  fine  husband  for  her  must 
be  fine  all  through  to  the  very  heart  of  him.  For 
she  is  wonderful.  She  is  all  gold.  The  man 
who  is  her  husband  will  have  to  do  his  best,  if  he 
wants  to  deserve  her — and  even  then  he  may  not 

succeed." 

226 


BLUE  ANCHOR  INN 

"  You  see,"  said  Halsey,  "  even  if  I  aspired  to 
the  honor  of  being  her  husband,  Roger  doubts 
if  I  should  be  worthy." 

Mrs.  Gilpin  looked  at  Brooke  wonderingly. 

"You  talk  almost  as  if  you  loved  her  your- 
self." 

The  young  man  laughed. 

"  Why,"  he  said,  "  I'm  married.  " 

Which  statement  was  accurate  and  unanswer- 
able. 

Brooke  gave  the  subject  of  Halsey' s  conjugal 
qualifications  further  thought  in  the  afternoon  as 
he  strolled  up  the  beach.  But  he  arrived  at  no 
conclusion.  He  saw  nothing  humorous  in  the 
fact  that  he  had  up  to  this  time  considered  his 
fellow  guest  as  a  highly  entertaining  and  uplift- 
ing person.  He  was  astonished  that  he  had  not 
been  able  to  see  the  man's  character  more  clearly 
before.  It  was  not  until  now  he  realized  his  prim 
preciseness,  his  unoriginality,  his  utter  colorless- 
ness,  his  lack  of  all  the  sterling  qualities  that  are 
necessary  for  a  husband  and  a  man.  It  did  not 
seem  strange  to  him  that  he  had  known  Halsey 

intimately  for  about  ten  years  and  had   never 

227 


BLUE  ANCHOR  INN 

suspected  the  existence  of  all  these  criminal 
deficiencies  in  him.  But  then  Brooke  was  just  a 
little  warped  in  his  judgment.  There  was  some- 
thing the  matter  with  him. 

His  ruminations  on  this  subject  were  presently 
interrupted  by  some  one  in  the  distance  shouting 
his  name.  He  faced  about  and  discovered  Damon 
and  Pythias,  in  the  persons  of  Captain  John  and 
Mr.  Still,  hastening  wildly  toward  him,  with 
antics  and  gesticulations  giving  the  idea  of  run- 
ning like  two  men  in  a  moving  picture  drama. 
The  young  man  sat  down  to  wait  for  them,  and 
in  due  time  they  arrived. 

"  Where's  the  fire  ?  "  asked  Brooke. 

"  Eh  ?  "  demanded  Still,  breathlessly. 

Captain  John  glanced  at  him  malevolently. 

"Nothin'  th'  matter,  Mr.  Brooke.  He  just 
hed  t'  run  and  tell  you  an  idee  before  he  spilled 
it" 

The  old  gentleman  was  sitting  on  the  sand, 
gasping  like  a  newly-caught  fish. 

"  I  bet  you  he's  forgot  it  already,"  observed  the 
captain,  with  something  like  pride  in  his  associ- 
ate's abilities. 

228 


BLUE  ANCHOR  INN 

But  Mr.  Still  gave  a  final  gasp  and  emerged 
from  the  piscatory  kingdom. 

"  John  and  I,"  he  said,  in  a  high  voice,  "  have 
been  having  a  discussion." 

"  He  did  the  '  dis  '  and  I  did  th'  cussin',"  inter- 
polated the  mayor,  with  the  air  of  one  propound- 
ing a  jest. 

Mr.  Still  looked  at  him  with  unseeing  eyes. 

"  It  wasn't  so  much  of  a  discussion  either. 
Poor  old  John's  brain  has  a  flat  wheel,  and  he 
can't  get  up  much  speed  with  it." 

The  mayor  writhed  with  offended  dignity. 

"  Get  rid  of  th'  idea  quick,"  he  grumbled,  "  be- 
fore it  oozes  out  of  th'  pores  of  your  skin." 

"  Well,  Mr.  Brooke,"  went  on  the  old  man, 
"  the  thing  I  said  to  our  genial  friend  was  that  I 
liked  this  island." 

"  I  don't  see  how  you  could  get  up  much  of  a 
discussion  on  that." 

"  Well,  I  went  further.  I  said  I'd  like  to  live 
on  the  island.  I  said  I'd  like  to  spend  the  rest  of 
my  days  on  the  island." 

"  Nobody  but  a  soft-head  like  him,"  put  in  the 

captain,  "could  ever  get  an  idee  like  that  in  him, 

229 


BLUE  ANCHOR  INN 

What  he  ought  to  do  is  t'  buy  a  berth  in  an  old 
man's  home  where  they  have  plush  sofys  and 
white  waiters  and  a  elevator  to  take  you  up 
t'  your  room.  Why,  look  at  me.  I've  lived 
here  all  my  life,  and  all  I  want  t'  do  is  t'  get 
away." 

"  I'm  an  old,  old  man,"  said  Mr.  Still,  begin- 
ning to  speak  in  the  middle  of  the  mayor's  dis- 
course. "  My  course  of  life  is  nearing  its  close. 
All  my  days  have  been  spent  amidst  the  noise  of 
the  city  and  of  the  city  people  making  money. 
It  has  been  my  dream  since  I  was  a  boy  some 
day  to  live  near  the  noise  of  salt  water,  where 
I  could  be  quiet  and  think — where  I  could  see  the 
ships  on  the  sea." 

Brooke  was  profoundly  touched. 

"  I  am  sure,  Mr.  Still,  it  could  be  arranged  for 
you  to  do  so,"  he  said. 

"  What  I  should  want  would  be  a  house  up 
there  where  those  trees  are."  He  pointed  to  a 
couple  of  oak  trees  growing  on  a  little  rise  of 
ground.  "  A  house  with  a  great  fireplace  in 
it." 

"That     jest     shows    how    practical    he    is," 
230 


BLUE  ANCHOR  INN 

grumbled  Captain  John.  "  There  ain't  no  heat 
in  a  fireplace.  What  he  wants  is  a  nice  sheet- 
ir'n  stove." 

"  Well,  Mr.  Still,  why  don't  you  do  it?" 

"  Mr.  Brooke,"  said  the  old  man,  "  I  want  to 
buy  the  island." 

Brooke  started. 

"  See,"  observed  the  mayor.  "  Needs  a  new 
topmast." 

"  Why,  Mr.  Still,"  said  the  young  man,  with 
the  air  of  one  reasoning  with  a  child,  "  the 
island  is  two  miles  long  and  a  quarter  of  a  mile 
wide." 

Out  came  the  little  note-book,  and  the  old  gen- 
tleman carefully  jotted  down  the  figures. 

"  Why  don't  you  buy  simply  a  small  lot, — say 
an  acre  ?  " 

He  shook  his  head. 

"  No.  I  want  the  whole  thing.  I  don't  want 
any  one  else  to  come  and  change  it." 

The  young  man  looked  troubled. 

"See.  All  gone.  Rotted  away,"  said  Cap- 
tain John. 

"  Keep  quiet,"  remarked  Brooke,  roughly. 
231 


BLUE  ANCHOR  INN 

"  What  I  want  to  know  from  you,"  babbled  on 
the  old  man,  "  is  the  value  of  this  land." 

Brooke  smiled  rather  grimly.  It  had  had 
practically  no  value  for  the  last  ten  years. 

"  What  would  you  think  ?"  he  said. 

"  A  hundred  dollars  an  acre?  " 

"  Perhaps." 

"  Will  you  undertake  to  purchase  it  for  me  at 
that  price  ?  " 

Brooke  looked  at  him  uncertainly,  wondering 
what  was  the  best  way  to  deal  with  him. 

"  I  think,"  he  replied,  "  you  had  better  see 
them  yourself." 

The  old  man  shook  his  head  vehemently. 

"  No,  no,"  he  said.  "  They  would  argue  with 
me.  If  I  told  them  a  hundred  they  would  think 
I  meant  a  hundred  and  fifty.  I  am  too  old  for 
that.  Tell  them  a  hundred.  That's  what  I've 
decided  I  can  pay  for  it.  If  it  is  too  little,  no  one 
is  harmed.  If  it  is  too  much,  so  much  the  better 
for  them." 

Brooke  looked  at  the  kindly  old  gentleman, 
his  glasses  supported  on  the  apex  of  his  nose,  his 

venerable  straw  hat  thrust  back  on  his  bald  pate, 

232 


BLUE  ANCHOR  INN 

and  his  benevolent  eyes  shining  with  childish 
enthusiasm.  A  wave  of  pity  swept  over  him. 
He  could  not  encourage  such  lunacy. 

"  Perhaps,"  he  said,  gently,  "  if  we  wait  a 
while " 

"That's  right,"  cried  Still,  "no  use  to  wait. 
No  use  to  wait." 

Brooke  filled  his  lungs. 

"  I  say,"  he  shouted,  "  let's  give  it  considera- 
tion. Let's  think  it  over." 

The  old  gentleman  nodded  vigorously  and  ap- 
provingly. 

"  My  idea  exactly.  Find  out  what  they  think 
about  it.  If  it's  too  little,  no  harm  done.  If  it's 
too  much,  why,  so  much  the  better  for  them,  you 
see." 

Brooke  sighed. 

"You  could  not  expect  them,"  he  replied  with 
unflagging  patience,  "  to  sell  the  house  they  live 
in." 

"  Let  them  keep  it.  And  an  acre  of  ground. 
I'll  take  the  rest." 

The  young  man  gave  it  up.  He  could  think 
of  no  other  excuse. 

233 


BLUE  ANCHOR  INN 

"  The  best  way  to  treat  'em  when  they  get 
like  that,"  observed  Captain  John,  wisely,  "  is  t' 
humor  'em.  If  you  oppose  him  he'll  have  'n 
atheletic  fit." 

"  Quiet,  quiet,"  cried  Brooke,  irritated  by  the 
captain's  volubility. 

Mr.  Still  smiled  benignly. 

"  When  will  you  go  ?  "  he  observed. 

"  Oh,  now,"  said  the  other.  "  Now.  Come 
along." 

He  rose  to  his  feet. 

"  But,"  he  continued,  hoping  to  confuse  the 
old  man  with  practical  details,  "  you  must  have 
money,  a  deposit — cash.  Perhaps  we  should 
wait  for  that." 

Mr.  Still  fumbled  through  all  the  pockets  of 
his  attire.  His  two  companions  eyed  him  in 
breathless  suspense,  wondering  what  new  phase 
of  his  insanity  he  was  going  to  reveal  next.  He 
first  removed  his  far-seeing  glasses,  as  he  usually 
did  in  moments  of  excitement,  and  adjusted  his 
others  with  clumsy  eagerness. 

"  How  many  acres  on  the  island  ?  "  he  stopped 
to  ask,  irrelevantly. 

234 


BLUE  ANCHOR  INN 

"  Three  hundred  and  sixty.  Three  hundred 
and  eighty,  maybe,"  Brooke  informed  him,  im- 
patiently. 

"  I  thought  it  was  more.  But  no  matter.  No 
matter." 

He  presently  unearthed  from  some  improbable 
cache  a  decrepit  pocketbook,  which  he  ungir- 
dled  and  spread  out  on  the  sand.  From  the 
midst  of  its  heterogeneous  cargo  of  iron  wash- 
ers, street-car  transfers,  receipted  bills,  fish-hooks 
and  money  rumpled  almost  beyond  recognition, 
he  at  length  extracted  a  dirty,  dog-eared  piece 
of  folded  paper,  and  passed  it  over  to  the  young 
man. 

"If  they  agree,  give  them  this,"  he  said, 
vaguely.  "  No  deposits  for  me.  I'm  too  old — 
too  old  for  delays.  Let's  get  it  over  with  one 
way  or  the  other." 

Brooke  took  the  paper  and  opened  it  with 
fumbling  fingers,  and  having  done  so,  sat  staring 
at  it. 

"  Humor  him,"  counseled  Captain  John. 
"  Humor  him." 

Brooke,  however,  did  not  reply  to  this 
235 


BLUE  ANCHOR  INN 

observation,  for  what  he  held  was  a  prop- 
erly certified  check  for  forty  thousand  dol- 
lars. 


236 


CHAPTER  XXIII 

WHEN  Brooke,  laden  with   his  wealth,  ar- 
rived at  the  Blue  Anchor  Inn,  he  did  not 
waste  time  on  idle  small  talk.     He  found  them  all 
sitting  on  the  porch  awaiting  dinner. 

"Ned,"   he   said,   sitting   on   the    porch   rail, 
"  would  you  like  to  sell  the  island  ?" 

"  Um-huh,"  said   Ned,  deep   in   the  sporting 
page  of  his  paper. 

"The  whole  of  it?"  persisted  Brooke. 

"  Quiet,  Roger.     Quiet.     I'm  too  old  for  fairy- 
tales." 

"What    makes    you  ask?"   demanded   Mrs. 
Ned,  pleasantly. 

"  Because  I  have  been  thinking  it  might  be  ar- 
ranged." 

Gilpin  favored  his  guest  with  a  sardonic  smile. 

"What  do  you  think  it  is  worth  an  acre?" 
pursued  the  guest. 

The  other  put  down  his  paper. 
237 


BLUE  ANCHOR  INN 

"  Well,  just  as  a  matter  of  mental  relaxation," 
said  he,  "  seventy-five  dollars." 

"  Can  you  get  that  ? " 

"  No." 

"We  tried  once,"  said  his  wife. 

"  Oh,  yes,  we  tried.  There  was  a  real  estate 
whirlwind  named  Smithers,  who  tried  to  pull  off 
the  deal.  He  was  willing  to  pay  the  price — 
about  twenty-nine  thousand  dollars  in  all,  but 
when  he  saw  the  wreck  of  the  old  trestle,  it  was 
all  off." 

"  The  old  island  is  too  inaccessible,"  said  Mrs. 
Gilpin. 

"  Should  you  like  to  build  a  concrete  trestle?" 
Brooke  asked. 

"  No,  Roger,  no.  I  shouldn't  risk  a  cent  on 
it." 

The  other  hesitated  a  moment. 

"If  you  were  offered  forty  thousand  for  the 
whole  of  it,  exclusive  of  this  house,"  he  said, 
"  would  you  consider  it  ?  " 

Gilpin  picked  up  his  paper. 

"  No,"  he  replied. 

"  Why,  Ned  !  "  cried  his  wife. 
238 


BLUE  ANCHOR  INN 

"  No,"  exclaimed  Ned,  putting  down  the  sheet, 
"  I  wouldn't  stop  to  consider  it.  I'd  catch  the 
man  by  the  throat  and  shake  the  money  out  of 
his  clothes  before  he  had  time  to  change  his 
mind." 

Brooke  threw  the  check  in  his  host's  lap. 

"  Consider  it  shaken  out,"  he  observed. 

Gilpin  picked  up  the  piece  of  paper  gingerly. 
He  glanced  at  it  hastily,  and  then,  with  the  air 
of  a  man  not  quite  sure  of  his  faculties,  read  it 
carefully  through  from  number  to  signature.  His 
wife  and  Halsey,  overpowered  by  curiosity, 
arose  from  their  chairs  and  stared  at  the  incom- 
prehensible thing  over  his  shoulder.  Nothing 
was  heard  on  the  porch  but  the  busy  drilling  of 
a  wasp  in  the  rafter  overhead.  Gilpin's  face 
hardened. 

"What  is  it?"  he  demanded  at  last.  "A 
joke?" 

Brooke  assured  him  it  was  not,  and  went  on 
to  relate  the  story  of  the  offer. 

"  Go  get  him  quick,"  counseled  Halsey.  "  He 
is  an  old  man.  He  may  die." 

But  Gilpin  hesitated. 

239 


BLUE  ANCHOR  INN 

"  I  don't  want  to  take  advantage  of  an  insane 
person." 

"  I  have  been  thinking  that,  too,"  said  Mrs. 
Gilpin.  "  It  seems  to  me,  Roger,  you  had  better 
tell  the  story  of  this  offer  to  your — to  Mrs. 
Brooke,  and  ask  her  what  she  thinks  we  should 
do." 

For  some  reason  or  other,  Brooke  did  not  rel- 
ish this  idea,  but  he  nevertheless  acquiesced. 
Immediately  after  dinner  he  set  out  on  his  mis- 
sion. 

"  And  if  she  says  it  is  all  right,"  admon- 
ished the  prospective  vendor  of  the  island, 
"  bring  the  old  man  back  with  you — dead  or 
alive." 

Mrs.  Brooke  was  alone  on  the  front  porch  of 
her  cottage.  Preliminary  formalities  being  dis- 
posed of,  he  stated  his  mission. 

"  You  say  he  offered  forty  thousand  dollars  ?  " 
she  asked. 

"  Yes.     What  would  you  advise  ?  " 

"  Take  it,"  she  said. 

"  But  is  he  in  his — his  right  mind  ?  " 

"  I  think  so,"  a  little  stiffly. 
240 


BLUE  ANCHOR  INN 

"  I  didn't  want  to  take  advantage  of  an  old 
man." 

She  smiled. 

"  Have  no  fears  on  that  score.  But  be  very 
careful  he  doesn't  take  advantage  of  you." 

Brooke  laughed  at  this  quaint  conceit. 

"  Very  well,"  he  replied,  "  we  shall  be  quite 
careful." 

The  old  gentleman  trotted  along  beside  him 
back  to  the  Blue  Anchor  Inn. 

Gilpin  and  Halsey,  being  lawyers,  had  drawn 
up  the  deed  before  the  two  arrived.  There  was 
no  thought  of  delay  on  an  occasion  like  this.  In 
fact,  every  one  felt  a  little  trepidation  lest  some 
hitch  might  develop. 

Mr.  Still  adjusted  his  glasses  with  care,  and 
seizing  the  document  sat  down — evil  omen — in 
the  chair  on  which  reposed  the  ancestral  straw 
hat.  But  such  was  the  tension  of  the  moment, 
they  forebore  to  call  his  attention  to  it.  After 
about  five  minutes  of  oppressive  silence,  while  he 
read  the  deed,  apparently  with  the  end  of  his 
bony  forefinger,  he  said  : 

"  Give  me  the  pen." 

241 


BLUE  ANCHOR  INN 

And  he  signed  with  a  shaky  hand — "  Samuel 
Still." 

In  the  morning,  immediately  after  breakfast, 
the  Gilpins,  accompanied  by  Brooke  (Halsey  be- 
ing otherwise  occupied),  repaired  to  a  little  hill, 
from  which  could  be  seen  the  entire  island,  the 
Gilpins  to  see  if  they  repented  of  the  bargain, 
Brooke  for  no  reason  at  all.  And  the  Gilpins, 
after  close  scrutiny,  decided  that  they  did  not  re- 
pent of  their  bargain. 

"  I  suppose,  Roger,  you  will  live  here  now." 

"I?" 

"Where  did  you  think  you  were  going  to 
live  ?  This  is  all  part  of  a  gigantic  scheme  to 
ensnare  you.  And  the  crowning  touch  of  humor 
was  to  have  you  manage  the  deal  yourself, 
wasn't  it  ?  " 

"  I  don't  see  how  it  affects  me,"  observed 
Brooke. 

"  Well,  she  has  shown  you  that  she  is  a  good 
housekeeper,  and  a  fine  dresser.  Now  she  has 
proved  she  can  give  you  a  home." 

Brooke  laughed  in  spite  of  himself. 

242 


BLUE  ANCHOR  INN 

"  Let's  talk  of  something  pleasant,"  he  said, 
however. 

The  lady  looked  at  him  keenly. 

"  Are  you  going  back,  my  dear?"  asked  her 
husband. 

"  Presently,"  she  replied,  and  seated  herself  be- 
neath the  tree. 

Her  husband  descended  the  hill. 

"  Now,  Roger  Brooke,"  said  she,  "  what  is 
the  trouble  between  you  and  your  wife  ?  " 

"  We  are  very  uncongenial,"  he  began. 

"  Ned  says  all  wives  and  husbands  are  uncon- 
genial." 

"  Oh,  but  this  is  deep.  The  sort  of  unconge- 
niality  that  might  exist  between  an  angora  cat 
and  a  porcupine.  I  should  be  throwing  things 
at  her  in  a  week." 

"  You  have  made  up  your  mind  then  not  to — 
eat  from  the  hand." 

"  How  can  I  make  up  my  mind  about  any- 
thing? I  am  all  in  the  dark." 

He  thought  a  moment. 

"  Of  course  I've  made  up  my  mind,"  he  said, 
suddenly.  "  I  made  it  up  the  instant  I  first  saw 
'  243 


BLUE  ANCHOR  INN 

her.  She's  not  of  my  world.  She's  too  showy. 
The  channel  of  her  mind  is  dress.  I  want  hu- 
manity, not  artificiality.  I  want  a  mind,  not  a 
mental  machine.  You  must  understand  the  dis- 
tinction that  exists  between  her  and  yourself,  for 
instance.  In  other  words,"  he  said,  with  a  smile, 
"  I  fear  I  did  not  choose  wisely." 

She  pondered  a  long  while. 

"Well,"  she  said,  finally,  "we  must  find  a 
way." 

But  that  remark  does  not  always  settle  vexed 
questions. 

When  she  had  gone,  he  wandered  down 
toward  the  channel,  where  a  little  cat-boat  lay. 
It  was  then  that  he  saw  Dita  Grey  for  the  first 
time  since  the  night  they  returned  in  the  yawl. 
He  had  wanted  to  see  her.  He  had  made  sev- 
eral efforts  to  see  her.  But  the  relations  between 
him  and  Mrs.  Brooke  being  strained  by  their 
conversation  concerning  her,  he  could  not  well 
ask  for  her  at  Mrs.  Brooke's  house.  And  at 
other  times  the  girl  adroitly  avoided  him. 
When  he  remembered  his  last  act  in  her  pres- 
ence, he  saw  the  reason  for  it.  He  could  not 

244 


BLUE  ANCHOR  INN 

apologize  in  words  for  an  act  like  that  But  he 
could  show  her  by  his  actions — if  she  would  let 
him — that  it  had  been  the  result  of  a  misguided 
impulse,  and  that  in  his  heart  he  had  had  no 
shred  of  disrespect  for  her.  This  was  necessary 
for  his  peace  of  mind.  Heretofore,  he  had  never 
had  to  make  excuses  to  any  one  for  his  bearing 
toward  the  whole  female  phalanx.  It  had  been 
as  cool  and  deferential  as  toward  the  statues  in 
the  park.  Imagine  the  incredulity  of  his  senses, 
the  astonishment  of  his  whole  moral  system,  when 
he  had  reached  forward  and  held  one  of  those 
untouchable  creatures  in  his  hands.  Certainly 
it  disrupted  his  peace  of  mind. 

As  for  the  girl,  who  could  tell  what  her 
thoughts  were? 

But  as  she  approached  him,  she  nodded  to 
him  with  a  faint  smile,  and  would  have  passed 
on  without  a  word.  But  he  stood  almost  in  her 
path. 

"  Dita,"  he  said,  "  may  I  have  a  word  with 
you?" 

She  stopped. 

"  Yes,"  she  replied,  coolly. 

245 


BLUE  ANCHOR  INN 

He  hesitated.  He  did  not  know  what  that 
word  should  be.  She  was  looking  at  him  nar- 
rowly. 

"  Will  you  go  sailing  with  me  ?  " 

"I'm  busy  to-day,"  she  replied,  promptly. 
But  there  was  the  slightest  pause  before  she  said 
"  to-day,"  as  though  she  might  have  added  it  as 
an  afterthought.  He  did  not  perceive  it. 

"  I'm  sorry." 

He  paused. 

"  Are  you  angry  with  me  ?  " 

"  No,"  with  no  intonation. 

"  Nothing  has  displeased  you  ?  " 

Pride  prevented  her  entering  into  a  discussion 
by  answering  in  the  affirmative.  Whereas  "no" 
would  have  conveyed  the  idea  that  the  evening 
in  question  had  been  a  period  of  enjoyment. 

"I'm  sorry  for  anything  that  has  occurred,"  he 
said,  while  she  hesitated. 

"  You  may  well  be." 

Whereupon,  without  other  words,  she  walked 
quickly  away.  He  looked  after  her  for  a  moment 
and  then  went  on  down  to  the  water.  But  she 

had  not  gone  a  hundred  yards  before  she  turned 

246 


I  M    BUSY   TO-DAY 


BLUE  ANCHOR  INN 

suddenly.  When  she  did  not  see  him,  she  called 
his  name.  Her  voice  echoed  against  the  empty 
walls.  She  ran  down  the  sandy  street.  But  he 
had  already  disappeared  behind  the  tumble-down 
houses. 


247 


CHAPTER  XXIV 

WILLY  glanced  at  the  gentleman  who  was 
being  propelled  across  the  channel  in  a 
rowboat. 

"  Here  comes  something,"  he  confided  to  Hes- 
ter, "  that  don't  look  good  even  when  it's  far 
away." 

What  Hester  saw  was  a  gentleman  tastefully 
attired  in  the  height  of  fashion.  His  brilliant 
white  vest,  to  which  the  daintiest  hint  of  color 
was  given  by  circles  of  crimson  about  the  size  of 
quarter  dollars,  shone  brightly  across  the  water 
like  a  compound  sunset.  His  necktie  was  com- 
posed of  horizontal  layers  of  chocolate,  pistachio 
and  orange  ice.  He  wore  a  black  ribbon  to  his 
tortoise  shell  eye-glasses,  and  his  patent  leather 
shoes  sparkled  like  the  tappings  of  a  coach- 
horse.  This  refulgent  being  was  a  thing  of 
beauty  and  a  joy  forever  in  the  eyes  of  the  girl, 
but  Willy's  delight  was  somewhat  tempered  and 
restrained. 

248 


BLUE  ANCHOR  INN 

"  Guaranteed-forever  hose  ?  "  he  inquired  solic- 
itously as  this  vision  of  loveliness  stepped  out  on 
the  dock. 

To  this  somewhat  cryptic  remark  the  vision 
replied  nothing. 

"  Which  is  Mr.  Gilpin's  house,  my  boy  ?  "  he 
asked  with  a  certain  aloofness. 

Willy  shaded  his  eyes  from  the  glare  of  the 
vest. 

"  See  all  those  houses  over  there  ?  "  he  asked, 
pointing  toward  the  center  of  the  island. 

"Yes." 

"  All  those  are  his." 

Whereupon  the  young  man  fell  to  polishing 
the  brass  running  lights  of  the  launch.  The 
stranger  grew  red  and  fingered  his  watch  fob 
uncertainly. 

"  Which  house  does  he  live  in  ?  "  he  demanded, 
severely. 

Willy  looked  up  as  if  he  were  surprised  the 
man  had  not  left  long  ago. 

"  Right  over  there,"  he  said  obligingly. 

The  man  started  in  the  direction  indicated. 

"  Did  you  want  to  see  Mr.  Gilpin  hisself  ?  " 
249 


BLUE  ANCHOR  INN 

"  I  did." 

Willy  glanced  down  the  street. 

"  Looks  as  if  he  is  gonna  be  in  our  midst  in  a 
few  minutes,"  said  he,  indicating  a  figure  saunter- 
ing toward  them. 

"I'll  go  meet  him,"  replied  the  man,  and 
departed. 

The  stranger  approached  Mr.  Gilpin  with  out- 
stretched hand. 

"  Mr.  Gilpin  !  "  he  cried  gladly. 

The  other  looked  at  him  with  speculative  in- 
difference. 

"  I've  seen  you  somewhere  before." 

"  It's  Smithers,"  exclaimed  the  newcomer, 
coming  to  the  rescue,  "  Smithers." 

This  information  failed  to  awaken  any  spark 
of  recognition  in  Gilpin. 

"  Oh,  yes,  Smithers.  How  are  you,  Smithers?  " 
he  said. 

One  felt  almost  as  if  he  were  insulting  the  man 
when  one  called  him  by  his  right  name.  Smith- 
ers assured  him  he  was  well. 

"  I  came  to  see  you  about  the  property,  Mr. 

Gilpin,"  he  went  on. 

250 


BLUE  ANCHOR  INN 

"  Oh,  yes.  About  the  property.  Would  you 
mind  standing  a  little  bit  sidewise,  Smithers  ? 
I've  been  having  trouble  with  my  eyes." 

The  other  buttoned  up  his  coat  with  a  pained 
air. 

"  About  the  island  here,"  he  continued.  "  You 
remember  about  a  year  ago  you  offered  it  to  me 
for  seventy-five  an  acre." 

"  Yes." 

"  Well,  I'm  ready  to  buy  it  at  that  price." 

He  made  a  gesture  as  of  one  conferring  eternal 
good  fortune  on  his  fellow  man. 

"Too  late,  Smithers.     Sold  it  yesterday." 

The  agent's  jaw  dropped. 

"  To  whom  ?  " 

"  A  man  named  Still." 

The  other's  face  expressed  disgust. 

"  Stung  again,"  he  muttered. 

"  What's  the  matter  with  you  real  estate 
agents  ?  "  inquired  Gilpin.  "  You  blow  first  hot 
and  then  cold." 

Smithers  grew  confidential. 

"  I'll  explain  the  situation,"  he  said,  lowering 

his  voice,  although  there  was  no  one  within  a 

251 


BLUE  ANCHOR  INN 

quarter  of  a  mile.  "  There  has  been  a  remarkable 
boom  in  seashore  property,  and  every  one  is 
wild  to  get  control  of  a  block  of  undeveloped 
coast.  I  found  out  yesterday  that  Still  was  down 
here,  and  I  smelled  a  rat,  sir,  I  smelled  a  rat  at 
once." 

"  Do  you  know  Mr.  Still  ?  "  inquired  Gilpin, 
puzzled. 

"  Not  personally,  but  by  reputation.  He  is  the 
cleverest  real  estate  agent  we  have." 

The  other  smiled.  The  idea  of  old  Mr.  Still  as 
a  clever  real  estate  agent  was  funny. 

"  You're  thinking  of  the  wrong  man,  I  guess. 
But  I  understood  you  to  say  that  the  inaccessi- 
bility of  the  island  was  an  unsurmountable 
objection." 

The  agent  smiled  importantly. 

"  There  are  new  developments.  If  Still  made 
up  his  mind  to  get  the  property,  he  would  get  it 
at  any  price.  Our  idea  was  to  get  control  of  it 
and  make  him  buy  from  us  at  an  advance.  Any 
way,  you  know,  to  turn  an  honest  penny.  He 
knew  what  he  had  to  expect.  That's  the  reason 

he's  been  so  quiet." 

252 


BLUE  ANCHOR  INN 

Gilpin  laughed  aloud. 

"  Smithers,"  he  said,  "  the  amount  of  misinfor- 
mation you  get  together  is  astounding,  simply 
astounding." 

He  escorted  the  visitor  to  his  boat,  and  hurried 
back  to  the  house  to  tell  his  wife  and  guests 
the  humorous  story  that  old  Mr.  Still  was  the 
cleverest  real  estate  agent  in  the  business,  which 
tale  of  mistaken  identity  caused  no  little  amuse- 
ment. 

Prior  to  his  arrival  Brooke  had  been  wasting 
his  powers  of  persuasion  in  an  effort  to  arouse 
either  Mrs.  Gilpin  or  Halsey  to  such  a  state  of 
semi-activity  that  they  would  consent  to  sail  with 
him  in  the  cat-boat.  But  Halsey  was  enmeshed 
in  the  snares  of  a  book  on  the  single  tax  which 
bid  fair  to  keep  him  in  a  trance  for  the  rest  of  the 
day,  and  his  hostess,  whose  intention  had  been 
to  do  some  fancy  cross-stitching  on  stockings, 
was  in  the  midst  of  a  nerve-racking  picture  puz- 
zle. Brooke  turned  to  Gilpin,  but  that  gentle- 
man proposed  to  beguile  the  hours  by  painting 
the  fence  around  his  vegetable  garden,  and  also 
refused. 

253 


BLUE  ANCHOR  INN 

"  You  are  like  the  wedding  guests  in  the 
Bible,"  said  Brooke,  in  despair,  and  went  on  his 
expedition  alone. 

It  was  one  of  those  clear  blue  skies  over  which 
moved  leisurely  white  shaving-soap  clouds.  The 
blue  sky  met  the  blue  sea  in  a  crisp  line.  A 
brisk,  energetic  breeze  swept  in  from  the  water, 
bending  over  the  tops  of  the  trees  and  keeping 
the  leaves  all  aflutter.  It  was  like  a  fine  man's 
day  in  October,  such  as  gives  the  actively  in- 
clined person  an  opportunity  to  speak  contemp- 
tuously of  others  of  the  human  race  who  prefer 
summer  novels,  picture  puzzles,  and  dissipations 
like  painting  the  garden  fence,  to  the  muscle  giv- 
ing exercise  of  sitting  in  a  sailboat  while  the  wind 
blows  you  somewhere  you  have  no  especial  desire 
to  go. 

Brooke  surveyed  the  sky  and  the  sea  with  ab- 
solute approval.  The  ozone  in  the  air  filled  his 
lungs  and  he  went  whistling  along  like  a  school- 
boy, perfectly  happy  to  be  out  in  the  open.  And 
when  he  arrived  at  the  landing  where  the  cat- 
boat  was  moored,  there  was  Dita  Grey  sitting  in 
the  boat. 

254 


BLUE  ANCHOR  INN 

"  Dear  me,"  she  said,  "  I  thought  you  were 
never  coming." 

He  stared.  He  had  not  known  he  was  ex- 
pected. 

"  Well,"  he  said,  suavely,  "  I  was  a  little  de- 
layed." 

Whereupon,  without  another  word,  he  ran  up 
the  sail,  cast  off  and  took  his  seat  by  the  tiller  as 
though  he  had  been  planning  this  party  for 
some  time.  She  smiled.  If  he  had  known  the 
turmoil  that  upset  her  young  mind  since  he  had 
seen  her  the  day  before,  he  would  not  have  been 
surprised,  perhaps,  that  she  was  waiting  there  at 
the  slip. 

Indeed  it  might  be  that  a  more  reserved,  a 
more  self-conscious  and  less  impulsive  person 
would  not  have  come  at  all.  Such  a  course 
might  have  been  more  advisable  and  less  fraught 
with  embarrassment,  but  it  would  not  have  satis- 
fied her.  The  day  before  it  had  pleased  her  to 
view  him  from  a  pedestal  when  he  gave  her  that 
opportunity.  She  had  made  an  elaborate  show 
of  resentment  for  an  act  of  his  for  which  he  had 
been  only  half  guilty.  At  the  time,  there  was 

255 


BLUE  ANCHOR  INN 

nothing  for  her  to  do  but  repudiate  it,  for  had  she 
tacitly  acquiesced  by  showing  absolutely  no  dis- 
approval she  would  have  created  an  impossible 
situation.  It  would  have  been  a  simple  invita- 
tion for  a  repetition  of  the  performance.  Thus 
far  her  action  had  been  proper,  but  when  he 
apologized  she  should  not  have  further  humili- 
ated him. 

It  was  not  until  he  had  left  her  that  the  full 
significance  of  what  she  had  done  struck  her  like 
a  blow.  She  ran  after  him  with  the  vague 
idea  of  wiping  that  mark  off  her  score,  but 
he  had  gone.  Of  course  it  made  no  differ- 
ence what  he  thought  of  her  (she  made  this 
perfectly  clear  to  herself)  but  it  was  necessary, 
when  she  had  done  an  unchivalrous  thing,  to 
undo  it  at  the  first  opportunity.  But  would 
he  now  give  her  that  opportunity  ?  Had  she 
not  rebuffed  him  more  than  his  pride  would 
stand  ? 

She  had  considered  this  question  through  the 
night  when  she  should  have  been  sleeping ;  and 
in  the  morning  had  decided  that  if  the  mountain 

would  not  come  to  Mahomet,  she  would  go  to 

256 


BLUE  ANCHOR  INN 

the  mountain.  Hence  her  presence  at  the  land- 
ing, in  the  hope  (she  winced  when  she  thought 
how  she  had  abased  herself)  that  he  would  come 
there  also. 

"  Will  you  accept  my  apology  of  yesterday  ?  " 
he  said  presently. 

"  I  think,"  she  replied,  "  I  must  have  accepted 
it  at  the  time." 

"  You  conceal  your  thoughts  very  well,  then," 
he  replied. 

She  pulled  a  large  red  flower  from  the  knot  of 
her  hair. 

"  I  brought  this  to  give  you  so  you  wouldn't 
scold  me,"  she  said,  meekly. 

Whereupon  she  pinned  it  to  his  shirt. 

"  I  think  it  was  more  appropriate  where  it  was 
before,"  he  said,  looking  from  the  bright  flower 
to  her  rich,  brown  hair. 

"  Oh,  no,"  she  pleaded. 

"  Let's  put  it  back.  You  are  much  more  be- 
coming to  it." 

"  But,"  said  she,  "  if  you  don't  accept  my 
gift,  then  I  shall  know  you  are  angry  with 

me." 

257 


BLUE  ANCHOR  INN 

"  But  what  on  earth  have  I  to  be  angry 
about?" 

She  pretended  to  think  a  while. 

"  Aren't  you  angry  ?  " 

"With  you?" 

She  nodded  vigorously. 

"  How  the  world  turns  about,"  he  said 
by  way  of  reply.  "Yesterday  my  spirit  is 
torn  to  shreds  because  I  think  a  certain  girl 
is  angry  with  me — to-day  that  same  girl 
brings  rich  gifts  to  me  not  to  be  angry  with 
her." 

She  smiled. 

"  And  to-morrow "  he  went  on. 

She  was  nothing  if  not  unexpected.  She 
dropped  on  her  knees  to  put  two  fingers  on  his 
lips. 

"You  were  just  about  to  say  to-morrow  I 
should  be  angry  with  you  again." 

He  did  not  deny  it. 

"  And  then  you  were  going  to  make  some  re- 
mark about  the  changeability  of  woman,"  she 
cried,  holding  up  a  finger  at  him. 

"The    changeability    of    woman,"    he    said, 
258 


BLUE  ANCHOR  INN 

thoughtfully.  "  Oh,  that's  really  their  greatest 
charm.  Please  don't  hold  up  your  accusing 
finger  at  me." 

"  That's  the  thing  that  finds  out  everything 
that  is  in  you,"  she  explained.  "  It  frightens 
you  so  you  cannot  dissemble  the  thoughts  of 
your  wicked  heart." 

He  caught  the  finger. 

"  Let's  curtail  its  powers,  then.  I  don't  want 
it  to  find  out  the  things  that  are  in  my  wicked 
heart." 

She  moved  a  little  nearer,  and  put  her  elbows 
audaciously  on  his  knees. 

"  Do  you  suppose  I  need  that?"  she  said,  in- 
dicating the  finger  in  his  hand. 

He  looked  at  her  fairly. 

"  What  you  know,"  he  said  steadily,  "  I  shall 
not  deny." 

"  You  would  not  ?  "  she  replied,  gently. 

She  was  very  alluring,  and  very  near.  Her 
handsome  eyes  changed  with  every  idea  that  re- 
volved behind  them.  There  were  two  spots  of 
high  color  in  her  cheeks.  She  was  so  close  that 

sometimes    the    blowing    strands    of    her    hair 

259 


BLUE  ANCHOR  INN 

touched  him.     He  held  the  tiller  very  tight,  with 
both  hands. 

"  I  must  say  something  very  discourteous,"  he 
said  in  a  low  tone. 

She  looked  at  him  wonderingly. 

"  Would  you  mind  sitting  over  there  ?  " 

She  did  not  move. 

"  You  send  me  away  ?  " 

"  Yes." 

"  Then  you  must  give  me  my  flower." 

"  No,"  he  asserted,  firmly,  "  I  will  not  give  it 
to  you." 

She  broke  into  smiles. 

"  I  will  not  go  without  my  flower." 

"  I  intend  to  keep  it." 

"  Why  do  you  send  me  away?"  she  demanded, 
wondering. 

"  Because,"  he  said,  "  I  am  afraid  I  shall  touch 
you." 

The  little  boat,  untended  now,  was  running  far 
out  of  her  course  in  a  fine  exhibition  of  lands- 
man's seamanship. 

"  Touch  me  ?  "  she  repeated. 

"  Yes,"  he  cried  fiercely,  "  because  I  am  afraid 
260 


BLUE  ANCHOR  INN 

I  shall  take  you  up  in  my  arms  like  this,"  and  he 
crushed  her  to  him,  "and  tell  you  I  love  you,  I 
love  you,  I  love  you  !  " 

She  lay  quiet  in  his  arms  with  her  head  on  his 
shoulder. 

"  And,"  he  added,  "  may  God  help  us." 


261 


CHAPTER  XXV 

BROOKE  walked  back  to  the  Blue  Anchor 
Inn  with  a  singular  lightness  of  step.  The 
sky  was  clearer  and  more  deeply  blue  than  in 
the  morning.  The  great  handfuls  of  fleecy 
clouds  were  more  fleecily  white.  The  whole 
world  became  unaccountably  more  personal, 
more  sympathetic,  more  a  thing  to  be  held  in 
the  hand  as  a  personal  belonging.  His  mind 
took  a  larger  and  more  optimistic  view  of  the 
extent  of  the  universe.  It  was  something  outside 
and  beyond,  which  did  not  matter.  The  ground 
which  his  own  feet  trod  was  all  the  world,  and 
that  world  was  happy,  glorious,  Elysian.  There 
might  be  a  hundred  million  people  beyond,  plan- 
ning, plotting,  with  soiled  hands  and  selfish 
hearts  ;  but  no  thought  of  them,  no  remem- 
brance of  unhappiness,  strife,  discouragement — 
reality  itself — broke  through  the  rainbow  bubble 

in  which  he  walked.     The  rose  glasses  of  a  man's 

262 


BLUE  ANCHOR  INN 

love !  Oh,  what  view  is  more  wonderful,  more 
glorious,  more  evanescent,  more  ethereal — and 
what  else,  save  only  God's  rainbows,  is  so 
forever-returning ! 

As  he  walked  along  the  unpeopled  street,  he 
met  Willy.  He  felt  in  the  depths  of  his  pockets, 
and  drawing  forth  what  wealth  was  there,  counted 
it  hurriedly.  He  stopped  the  man-of-all-work  as 
he  was  about  to  pass. 

"  Willy,"  he  demanded,  "  did  I  ever  give  you 
a  dollar  and  sixty-five  cents  ?  " 

"  No,"  replied  Willy. 

"  Well,"  he  cried  brightly,  "  there  is  no  time 
like  the  present  to  begin."  And  he  poured  the 
loose  silver  into  the  boy's  hands,  much  to  the 
latter's  astonishment. 

Mrs.  Gilpin  saw  the  sunshine  in  his  eyes,  and 
it  started  a  little  eddy  of  conjecture  in  her  mind. 
Halsey  even  took  time  enough  from  the  business 
of  unraveling  the  solid  stuff  in  his  hands  to  re- 
mark that  "  that  foggy  grouch  seems  to  have 
disappeared."  When  he  went  into  his  bedroom, 
he  found  Gilpin  there  before  him  sitting  on  the 

window  sill  fondling  Brooke's  automatic  pistol, 

263 


BLUE  ANCHOR  INN 

his  favorite  and  most  valued  possession,  which  he 
had  admired  for  months  on  end  in  the  shop,  and 
had  purchased  at  length  with  his  first  twenty 
dollars. 

"  Excuse  me  for  invading  your  sanctum,"  said 
the  host,  "  but  I  had  to  come  and  look  at  this 
again." 

The  other  looked  at  his  possession  fondly. 

"  Isn't  it  a  wonder  ?  "  he  cried,  with  enthusi- 
asm. 

"  I'm  crazy  about  it." 

"  You  really  like  it  ?  " 

"  Really  like  it !     I'm  going  to  buy  one  1 " 

Brooke  picked  up  his  hair  brushes. 

"  Ned,"  he  said,  "  I  want  to  make  you  a  pres- 
ent of  that  gun." 

The  man  on  the  window  sill  started. 

"Huh?"  he  said. 

"  I  want  to  give  it  to  you." 

The  other  put  down  the  pistol  and  started 
across  the  room.  Brooke  caught  him  at  the 
door  and  held  him. 

"What's  the  matter?" 

His  companion  laughed. 
264 


BLUE  ANCHOR  INN 

"  I  haven't  time  to  stay  here  and  listen  to  you 
talk  rag-time,  Roger,  old  boy." 

The  other  grew  serious. 

"  Here,  take  it,"  he  said,  picking  up  the  pistol, 
"  and  don't  be  foolish.  I  have  been  wanting  to 
give  you  something  you  would  like.  This  is 
my  first  opportunity." 

And  he  thrust  it  upon  his  host  with  such  evi- 
dent earnestness  that  Ned  Gilpin  took  him  at  his 
word  and  kept  the  pistol. 

Ned  Gilpin's  wife  was  a  very  wise  young 
woman.  Her  searching  glance  did  not  overlook 
the  fact  that  something  unusual  had  happened 
in  Roger  Brooke's  career.  There  was  no  mis- 
taking his  exalted  humor.  There  was  no  deny- 
ing his  flagrant  optimism.  This  thing  was  not 
an  incident,  a  bare  occurrence,  a  mere  pleasant 
taste  in  the  mouth.  It  was  a  turning  about,  a 
reversal,  a  crisis,  a  phenomenon.  And  it  did  not 
take  so  much  as  her  woman's  intuition  to  know 
what  the  phenomenon  was. 

Had  she  divined  such  a  phenomenon  in  the 
life  of  any  other  man,  she  would  have  waited, 

but,  added   to  the  contorted  and  doubtful   cir- 

265 


BLUE  ANCHOR  INN 

cumstances  already  complicating  this  particular 
young  man's  biography,  it  appeared  to  demand 
further  diagnosis  and  prescription.  She  there- 
fore made  an  opportunity  presently  for  seeing 
him  alone. 

"  Now,"  she  said,  with  unusual  abruptness, 
"  what's  the  matter  ?  " 

"There  is  a  woman,"  he  answered,  "in  my 
life.  I  shouldn't  have  said  woman,  either.  Per- 
haps  " 

"  I  know,"  she  supplied,  "  angel.  When  did 
this  happen  ?  " 

"This  morning." 

"  Not  your  wife  ?  "  she  asked. 

The  faintest  suspicion  of  a  cloud  passed  over 
his  face.  He  shook  his  head. 

"  Miss  Grey,  then.     Or  do  you  call  her  Dita?  " 

"  I  call  her  Dita." 

She  twisted  the  rings  on  her  fingers. 

"  You  poor  boy  ! "  she  said,  at  length. 

"I  know,"  he  answered,  "but  I  can't  think  of 
it  that  way  yet" 

"  You  must,"  she  said. 

He  looked  thoughtfully  at  the  same  blue  sky, 
266 


BLUE  ANCHOR  INN 

and  the  same  clear  air,  and  the  same  world 
around  that  had  seemed  so  felicitous  to  him  a 
while  ago,  and  even  now,  perhaps,  the  illusion 
was  fading. 

"  What  a  fool  I  was  a  year  ago,"  he  said  at 
length.  "  But  how  could  I  have  known  ?  My 
freedom  had  never  then  been  of  value  to  me, 

and  now  when  I  haven't  it "  He  made  a 

gesture. 

"  That  seems  to  be,"  she  said  gently,  "  the 
scheme  of  our  lives." 

"  I  understand,"  he  replied.  "  A  man  gains 
strength  only  by  going  up-hill." 

He  thought  a  while. 

"A  man  can  chasten  himself  to  the  end  of 
time,"  he  went  on  presently,  "  and  not  be  bitter, 
but  when  that  means  driving  some  one  else  along 
the  same  road,  it's  hard.  How  can  I  stand  that  ? 
How  can  I  do  it  at  all  ?  I've  known  that  I  loved 
this  girl  for  a  " — he  laughed— "  well,  it  has  been 
only  a  week,  but  it  has  seemed  a  long  while, — 
and  all  that  time  I  knew  I  could  not  have  her.  I 
was  resigned  to  that." 

"  Of  course,"  she  said. 
267 


BLUE  ANCHOR  INN 

"  I  tried  not  to  tell  her,  for  two  reasons.  One 
of  these  was  that  it  never  occurred  to  me  she 
wanted  me.  It  has  not  been  a  common  trait  in 
women.  And  then  when  she  told  me  she  did — 
well,  no  matter  what  happens  for  all  the  rest  of 
time,  I  would  not  have  missed  being  as  happy 
as  I  am  now." 

"  Well,"  she  said,  quietly,  "  that's  your  reward. 
You  can  never  forget  that." 

"  But  the  girl  ?  " 

"  She  has  the  same  thing." 

"  You  are  so  ethereal — so — hypothetical." 

She  thought  a  moment. 

"  But  not  quixotic,"  she  replied.  "  You  have 
this  thing  to  do.  Why  not  take  all  the  joy  along 
with  it  that  there  is  ?  " 

He  arose  and  paced  the  porch  before  her. 

"  But  since  this  has  happened,"  he  cried,  "  that 
other  woman  shall  never  darken  my  threshold." 

At  the  moment  he  forgot  that  he  did  not  pos- 
sess such  a  thing  under  the  skies. 

"  Perhaps  she  does  not  wish  to,"  replied  Mrs. 
Gilpin. 

He  stopped  eagerly. 

268 


BLUE  ANCHOR  INN 


"  Perhaps,  then 


She  held  up  her  hand. 

"  I  shouldn't  bank  on  it,"  she  said.  "  Now  that 
you  agree  with  me,  I  shall  confess  I  don't  like 
that  woman.  She  has  a  hold  on  you.  She  has 
also  some  scheme,  because  she  is  not  frank.  You 
will  never  be  safe  until  you  are  clear  of  her 
skirts." 

"  I  know  it." 

"Well,  then — I  don't  want  to  discourage  you 
— but  don't  be  optimistic." 

He  took  several  turns  up  and  down  the  porch. 

"  Well,  what  am  I  to  do  ?  "  he  said. 

"  How  much  have  you  told  the  girl  ?  "  she  de- 
manded. 

He  explained  that  she  knew  the  bare  fact  of 
his  marriage. 

"Then  she  has  not  gone  thus  far  blindfold.  It 
makes  your  course  easier.  You  must  tell  her  the 
whole  thing." 

"  Yes,"  he  said. 

"  After  that  do  you  think  you  can  honorably 
keep  on  seeing  her?  " 

"  No,  I  guess  not" 

269 


BLUE  ANCHOR  INN 

"  If  ever  you  are  free,"  she  said,  "  there  will  be 
time  enough." 

"  Of  course  you're  right.  I'll  go  away." 
And  when  he  went  out  in  the  air  again,  the  sky 
was  dulled,  and  the  breeze  that  stirred  the  trees 
was  gone.  The  little  world  that  had  seemed  so 
glorious  to  him  in  its  perfectness, — lo,  was  a 
mere  sandy  island.  The  mirage  had  passed 
away. 


270 


CHAPTER   XXVI 

A  GREAT  change  had  come  over  Halsey.  In 
a  thoughtless  moment  Gilpin  had  brought 
him  a  copy  of  Henry  George's  book  on  the 
Single  Tax,  little  thinking  what  a  high  explosive 
that  volume  might  prove  to  be.  And  before 
Halsey  had  read  three-quarters  through  it,  his 
soul  underwent  a  change.  It  was  a  singular 
thing  that  the  subject  had  never  been  presented 
to  him  before.  But  when  it  did  come  it  found 
his  system  receptive  and  eager  for  a  new  idea. 
For  nearly  a  month  the  man  had  discovered  no 
hills  for  his  brain  to  climb  and  had  let  it  run  easily 
along  the  level.  The  intellect  was  not  accustomed 
to  this,  and  now  at  the  end  of  the  period  the  con- 
tinued inaction  was  beginning  to  be  irksome. 

Some  new  food  for  thought  was  necessary.  It 
might  have  been  Bahaism,  or  Christian  Science, 
or  Socialism,  or  World  Peace.  It  happened  to 
be  the  Single  Tax,  and  at  the  end  of  the  second 

day  he  found  that  he  had  always  been  a  single- 

271 


BLUE  ANCHOR  INN 

taxer.  He  read  and  reread  parts  of  the  book 
that  appealed  especially  to  his  reason.  He  took 
long  walks  on  the  beach  at  night,  wandering 
on  with  his  hands  clasped  behind  him,  turning 
the  points  of  the  argument  over  in  his  mind,  ap- 
plying it  to  his  own  experience,  coming  upon 
unexpected  flaws  and  endeavoring  to  reason  them 
down,  trying  always  to  carry  the  reasoning  one 
stage  further  and  see  what  happened.  This  was 
like  food  and  drink  to  him. 

He  went  back  to  the  city  and  returned  with 
other  literature  on  the  subject.  It  was  almost  im- 
possible now  to  entice  him  from  his  books  or  his 
contemplations.  He  even  began  the  composing 
of  a  monograph  on  the  subject,  or  a  special  phase 
of  the  subject,  for  publication  in  a  magazine 
that  sometimes  published  his  writings  when  he 
was  in  the  throes  of  a  new  idea.  Conversations 
with  him  all  began  to  lead  to  the  same  subject, 
and  if  you  mentioned  to  him,  for  instance,  that 
you  liked  lemon  in  your  tea,  in  three  speeches 
he  would  have  twisted  things  around  until  you 
found  you  were  talking  of  the  crime  of  taxing  a 

man  for  improving  his  land. 

272 


BLUE  ANCHOR  INN 

He  found  no  time  now  for  the  relaxations  that 
had  heretofore  occupied  him.  Gilpin  could  no 
longer  tease  him  for  his  visits  to  Miss  Grey.  For 
he  had  not  seen  that  lady  since  the  Single  Tax 
book  came. 

It  is  doubtful  if  he  realized  this  change  in  his 
habits.  He  did  not  give  himself  time  to  reflect 
that  from  seeing  her  on  an  average  of  two  or 
three  times  a  day,  he  had  suddenly  stopped  and 
now  saw  her  not  at  all. 

But  one  day  he  met  her  on  the  beach.  When 
he  saw  her  coming,  he  paused  in  his  ruminating 
walk  on  the  sands  and  passed  his  hand  bewil- 
deredly  over  his  eyes,  like  a  person  trying  to  recall 
something  that  had  occurred  long  ago  in  some 
past  existence.  She  stopped  as  she  approached 
him.  In  a  confused  way  he  seemed  to  realize  that 
there  was  something  more  youthful  and  buoyant 
and  happy  about  her. 

"  And  where  have  you  been  for  so  long  ?  "  she 
cried. 

"  I  ?  "  he  said.  "  I've  been— occupied.  I  have 
been  reading  a  wonderful  book." 

"What  book?" 

273 


BLUE  ANCHOR  INN 

"  It's  a  book  on  the  Single  Tax  theory."  His 
face  brightened.  "  Let's  walk  up  the  beach.  I 
want  to  tell  you  about  it." 

But  she  held  up  her  hand. 

"  No,"  she  cried,  "  no.     Not  to-day." 

He  gazed  at  her  with  an  air  of  hurt  surprise. 
But  instantly  he  appeared  to  forget  all  about  her. 

"  Very  well,"  he  said,  dismissing  the  subject, 
"  very  well." 

Thereupon  he  nodded  absently  and  left  her. 
She  watched  him  speculatively  as  he  walked  up 
the  beach  with  his  hands  clasped  behind  him. 
She  realized  now  that  Herbert  Halsey  was  no 
longer  a  chattel  of  hers.  She  sighed  and  con- 
tinued her  walk  toward  home. 

No  woman  realizes  that  she  has  lost  her  hold 
on  any  man,  however  little  he  may  mean  to  her, 
without  a  pang  of  surprise  and  regret.  The  men 
she  leaves  behind  her  are  the  milestones  of  her 
youth  ;  and  as  she  sees  them  disappearing  in  the 
distance,  she  discovers  that  her  most  precious 
possession  is  slipping  slowly  away  from  her. 
Yet  no  melancholy  is  so  sweet  as  the  regret  for 

a  past  that  one  would  not  recall  if  one  could. 

274 


CHAPTER  XXVII 

IT  had  been  many  a  long  day  since  two  stran- 
gers had  graced  Lugger  Island  with  their 
presence  in  the  same  week.  The  arrival  and 
departure  of  Mr.  Smithers  had  been  food  for 
conversation  among  the  citizens  of  the  town. 
But  hardly  had  the  excitement  caused  by  this 
visit  died  down,  than  another  stranger  appeared 
on  the  shores.  Two  strangers  in  three  days  was 
the  record  up  to  that  time. 

This  second  stranger  was  a  roly-poly  sort  of 
man.  He  was  a  nice,  sleek,  little  Jack  Horner, 
whose  round,  pink  cheeks  and  spherical  bosom 
would  have  endeared  him  to  the  heart  of  the 
world  had  he  not  been  ashamed  of  these  heavenly 
blessings  and  attempted  to  gloss  them  over  with 
an  unconscionable  amount  of  dignity.  He  sat 
bolt  upright  in  the  stern  of  the  little  boat,  wearing 
an  expression  of  inscrutable  hauteur,  while  the 

nose  of  the  craft  pointed  up  in  the  air  at  an  angle 

275 


BLUE  ANCHOR  INN 

of  thirty  degrees.  He  landed  at  the  wharf, 
chucked  the  boatman  half  a  dollar  as  though  he 
hated  to  see  it  lying  around,  waddled  across  the 
boards  and  shook  hands — with  Mr.  Still. 

"You  got  my  wire?"  asked  the  old  gentleman, 
kindly. 

"  No,  Sam,  no.  I've  just  come  down  here  for 
a  little  pleasure  trip." 

"  I  am  glad  you  got  the  wire,"  said  the  old 
gentleman,  simply. 

"  Well,"  responded  the  newcomer,  impatiently, 
"  now  we've  fallen  on  each  other's  necks  and 
kissed  each  other,  let's  go  talk." 

Still  took  him  to  a  quiet,  cool  spot  under  the 
shadow  of  one  of  the  old  hotels. 

"  Now  tell  me  about  it,"  demanded  Jack 
Horner. 

"  Well,  we  started  in  the  yawl  on  the  thirtieth 
of  May." 

"  I  know  that.     Begin  where  I  don't  know." 

"  On  the  thirtieth  of  May,"  went  on  the  old 
man,  "and  sailed  down  the  coast  to  the  island. 
As  there  was  no  very  good  place  to  land,  it 

seemed  best  to  run  aground." 

276 


BLUE  ANCHOR  INN 

"  Very  good,"  said  the  little  fat  man,  taking  an 
interest. 

"  The  people  were  very  kind  to  us — and  at 
length  we  succeeded  in  renting  a  house  from 
them.  I  got  a  lot  of  data  and  distances  and 
soundings  (by  jingo,  I've  been  bitten  by  every 
crab — male  and  female — this  side  of  Atlantic 
City)  and  then  I  decided  everything  was  O.  K. 
except  a  means  of  getting  here." 

"  Found  that  out,  did  you?  " 

"Eh?" 

"  Should  think  you'd  have  known  that  be- 
fore." 

"  Should  you  ?  "  The  old  man  fanned  himself 
with  his  hat.  "  Well,  as  I  said,  that  was  the  ob- 
jection. Which,"  he  added,  absently,  "  has  been 
met." 

"  In  what  way  ?  " 

"  Concrete  piles." 

"  How  much  will  it  cost  ?  " 

Still  extracted  a  little  wad  of  paper  from  his 
pocket.  This  was  Brooke's  estimate  for  the  pi- 
ling. Then  he  explained  the  nature  of  the  piles 
as  it  had  been  explained  to  him. 

2/7 


BLUE  ANCHOR  INN 

"  Do  they  know  you  are  a  real  estate  agent  ? " 
asked  the  fat  one  at  length. 

"  No.     I  don't  believe  they  do." 

"  What  do  they  think  you  are  ?  " 

The  old  man  smiled  pleasantly. 

"  A  lunatic,"  he  said. 

His  companion  arranged  his  gold-rimmed  eye- 
glasses on  his  nose  pompously  and  did  a  lot  of 
figuring  on  the  back  of  an  envelope. 

"Well,"  he  said,  presently,  "we  ought  to 
make  a  million  dollars  out  of  this.  Give  it  three 
years,  and  this  place  will  be  a  seething  summer 
resort." 

The  old  man  gazed  sorrowfully  into  the  crown 
of  his  straw  hat. 

"  I  believe,"  he  said,  greatly  depressed,  "  I'll 
soon  have  to  buy  a  new  hat." 

"  What's  that  got  to  do  with  the  business  ? " 
demanded  the  other. 

"  Nothing." 

"  You  don't  seem  to  be  pleased  with  the  trans- 
action ?  " 

"  No,  I'm  not,"  replied  the  old  man,  in  his  hol- 
low voice.  "  I  don't  want  to  see  the  place  made 

278 


BLUE  ANCHOR  INN 

into  a  summer  resort.  I  like  it  this  way.  For 
two  cents  I  wouldn't  put  the  confounded  deal 
through  at  all." 

The  rotund  party  started  in  alarm. 

"  What ! " 

"  I  say  I  wouldn't  put  it  through.  These  peo- 
ple have  treated  me  well — better  than  most  peo- 
ple in  the  world  have  treated  me.  I  told  them  I 
wanted  to  live  here — to  pass  the  rest  of  my  days 
here — by  the  sea." 

"  Live  here ! "  cried  the  little  Jack  Horner, 
gasping  for  breath.  "  The  way  it  is  now  ?  Good- 
night." 

"  Well,"  said  Mr.  Still,  "  I  should  like  it." 

His  companion  scrambled  to  his  feet. 

"  They're  right.    You're  crazy ! "  he  exclaimed. 

"  Wha'  d'  ye  say  ?  "  demanded  Still. 

"Nothing,  nothing." 

"  Good  thing,"  grumbled  the  old  man.  "  I  don't 
mind  putting  through  a  good  stroke  of  business, 
but  I  hate  to  pull  off  a  sell  on  people  who  have 
treated  me  well." 

"  Is  that  what's  bothering  you  ?  "  cried  the  lit- 
tle man.  "Well,  forget  it.  All  they  want  is  the 

279 


BLUE  ANCHOR  INN 

money.  They're  hard  up.  We're  doing  them 
a  favor." 

"Well,"  said  the  old  man,  at  length,  "all 
right.  All  right." 

He  rose  slowly  to  his  feet  and  shambled  on 
after  his  partner,  one  trouser  leg  caught  in  the  top 
of  his  high  shoe,  his  coat  collar  half  turned  up, 
and  the  straw  hat,  perhaps  for  the  last  time, 
swinging  back  and  forward  on  his  ears  as  a 
fulcrum. 

"  Now,"  said  the  partner,  "  let's  go  see  the 
Easymarks." 

"Who?" 

"The  Gilpins,  if  that's  their  name."  The 
little  man  rubbed  his  hands  together  glee- 
fully. "This  transaction  is  the  greatest  piece 
of  business  the  firm  of  Still  and  Brooke  ever 
pulled  off,"  he  said,  trying  to  get  his  com- 
panion to  rejoice  with  him  in  their  good  for- 
tune. 

But  Still  only  shambled  on,  thinking  of  any- 
thing but  the  avoirdupois  beside  him. 

Meanwhile,  at  the  Blue  Anchor  Inn,  Brooke 

was  packing  a  steamer  trunk. 

280 


BLUE  ANCHOR  INN 

"When  are  you  going  to  see  her?"  asked 
Mrs.  Gilpin. 

"  Her  "  meant  only  one  person  to  him. 

"To-night,"  he  replied.  "  I'll  send  my  trunk 
this  afternoon,  and  then  there  will  be  no  tempta- 
tion to  linger." 

"Why  are  you  going,  Roger?"  asked  Halsey, 
dropping  into  the  room. 

Brooke  chucked  a  pink  shirt  into  the  depths  of 
the  trunk. 

"  Running  away  from  my  wife." 

Halsey  was  abashed. 

"  Oh,  say,  that  was  my  pink  shirt,"  he  cried, 
by  way  of  covering  his  embarrassment. 

Brooke  fished  it  out.  It  had  pale  blue  stripes 
in  it.  He  handed  it  to  Halsey. 

"  Thanks,"  he  said  gratefully.  "  I  might  have 
worn  it." 

Gilpin  lounged  in. 

"Sorry  to  see  you  going,  old  chap.  But 
would  you  mind  leaving  those  shoes  of  mine?" 

"  Not  at  all,"  responded  the  other  obligingly. 

Halsey  sat  on  the  foot  of  the  bed,  where  he 

could  exercise  a  more  thorough  supervision. 

281 


BLUE  ANCHOR  INN 

"The  fellow  that  leaves  first,"  he  said  with  un- 
expected perspicacity,  "always  has  the  advan- 
tage." 

Mrs.  Gilpin,  whose  wardrobe  was  not  imper- 
iled by  the  packing  operation,  was  standing  by 
the  front  window. 

"  Oh,  here  they  come,"  she  cried,  presently. 

"Who?" 

"Callers.  Mrs.  Brooke,  old  Mr.  Still  and  a 
globular  person." 

"  Hard  luck,"  observed  her  husband. 

"  Let's  all  go  down — if  we  have  to  talk  to  Mr. 
Still." 

"  You  will  excuse  me,"  said  Brooke. 

"  No.  This  is  your  opportunity  to  say  good- 
bye to  Mrs.  Brooke,"  said  Mrs.  Gilpin. 

They  went  down  together. 

"  Who  is  the  wide  gentleman  ?  "  asked  Gilpin. 

There  was  no  answer.  When  Mr.  Still's  pom- 
pous partner  waddled  up  on  the  porch  after  his 
companions,  with  an  expression  like  Caesar  as- 
cending the  throne,  the  others  were  so  fascinated 
by  the  ridiculousness  of  the  little  pouter-pigeon 

that  they  could  scarcely  forbear  from  laughing 

282 


BLUE  ANCHOR  INN 

in  his  face.  When  Mrs.  Brooke  introduced  him, 
he  made  a  stiff  little  bow. 

"  Mrs.  Gilpin,"  said  Mrs.  Brooke,  "  I  wish  to 
present  my  husband,  Mr.  Brooke." 

A  certain  young  man  in  the  background 
gasped  and  backed  up  against  a  post  for  sup- 
port. An  unnatural  silence  reigned  on  the  Gil- 
pins'  porch. 


283 


CHAPTER  XXVIII 

THIS  thunderbolt  having  been  casually 
dropped  into  their  midst,  the  dazed  inhabit- 
ants of  the  Blue  Anchor  Inn  were  reduced  to  a 
state  of  mere  gibbering  insensibility.  Mrs. 
Brooke,  aided  and  abetted  by  her  husband, 
thereupon  proceeded  to  unfold  a  little  authentic 
history  dealing  with  the  true  inwardness  of  Mr. 
Still's  activity  in  the  past  three  or  four  weeks. 
She  explained  their  real  reason  for  coming  to  the 
island  and  why  they  had  stayed  so  long.  Mr. 
Still  did  not  want  to  spend  his  old  age  by  the 
sad  sea  waves.  Oh,  no.  That  was  just  put  in 
to  obscure  things, — to  give  human  interest  to  the 
event.  But  the  real  purpose  in  purchasing  the 
property  was  to  make  a  great,  live-wire  summer 
resort  out  of  it ! 

Mrs.  Brooke  paused  to  let  that  statement  sink 
in.  But  the  ground  was  no  longer  porous.  The 
victims  were  not  to  be  caught  again.  Nothing 

could   astonish   them    now.     If  they  had   been 

284 


BLUE  ANCHOR  INN 

informed  that  the  purpose  of  the  investment  was 
to  mine  for  diamonds,  or  to  erect  an  office  build- 
ing, or  to  found  a  university,  or  to  establish  an 
independent  republic,  their  benumbed  brains 
would  have  considered  it  as  the  obvious  and 
proper  means  of  developing  the  natural  re- 
sources of  the  island. 

It  was  not  until  their  guests  were  preparing  to 
go  that  their  wits  and  good-humor  began  to  re- 
turn. The  fact  that  they  had  been  deceived  and 
duped  in  the  sale  of  the  land  made  no  difference  to 
the  former  owners,  because  all  they  wanted  was  to 
sell  it — and  the  future  disposal  of  it  did  not  greatly 
concern  them.  And  then  the  true  significance 
of  this  unforeseen  Mr.  Brooke  dawned  upon  them. 
Roger  Brooke,  in  the  twinkling  of  an  eye,  was 
released  from  the  toils  and  machinations  of  a 
woman,  who  appeared  none  the  less  terrible  now 
that  they  knew  that  there  never  had  been  any 
toils  and  machinations.  The  fact  that  he  was 
merely  transferred  from  the  power  of  a  known 
woman  to  the  power  of  an  unknown  one  had  no 
force,  so  glad  were  they  that  this  was  not  his  wife. 

Brooke  had  further  cause  for  joy  in  the  fact 
285 


BLUE  ANCHOR  INN 

that  the  two  men  made  arrangements  with  him 
for  a  meeting  in  the  city  to  talk  over  plans  for  the 
immediate  construction  of  the  concrete  trestle  and 
roadway  from  the  main  shore  across  the  channel. 
This  would  be  the  biggest  commission  his  firm 
had  yet  had,  and  the  resultant  advertisement 
would  mean  a  great  stride  toward  ultimate  suc- 
cess. He  felt  that  his  vacation  had  really  been 
wdrth  while. 

"  Marianne,"  observed  Mr.  Brooke  an  hour 
later  in  the  privacy  of  their  boudoir,  "  let's  beat 
it,  quick." 

"  I'm  with  you,"  cried  his  fair  and  dainty  wife 
enthusiastically.  "  I  feel  as  if  I  had  done  thirty 
days  in  jail." 

"  Oh,  this  place  is  the  best  regulated  cemetery 
in  the  East.  How  do  the  Easymarks  stand  liv- 
ing here?" 

"  Oh,"  she  said,  yawning,  "  they've  had  a 
liberal  Sunday-school  education,  and  they  lead  a 
sheltered  life.  They'd  just  as  soon  look  at  a  sun- 
set as  a  moving-picture  show,  and  when  they're 
in  town  they  eat  at  home  in  preference  to  a  swell 
cafe." 

286 


BLUE  ANCHOR  INN 

"  I  guess  they  hold  on  to  it,"  observed  the  hus- 
band with  apparent  irrelevance. 

"  Glue  on  their  fingers,"  said  she. 

"  Say,"  he  asked,  at  length,  "  what  did  they 
rubber  at  me  like  that  for  when  you  introduced 
me  to  'em  ?  " 

His  wife  began  to  giggle. 

"  Why,  it's  this  way,"  she  explained.  "  That 
Brooke  man  you  met  has  got  a  wife  somewhere 
who  can't  make  up  her  mind  whether  to  divorce 
him  or  not.  I  got  that  from  a  clipping  Uncle 
Sam  cut  out  of  the  paper,  and  from  a  few  things 
Mrs.  Gilpin  has  let  fall.  It  seems  none  of  these 
Gilpins  ever  saw  her  and  there's  some  mystery 
in  it.  I  don't  believe  Brooke  ever  talks  about 
her."  She  paused  to  toss  a  few  things  into  her 
open  suitcase. 

"  Well,"  she  continued,  "  when  I  began  keep- 
ing dark  about  you,  and  side-stepping  all  solic- 
itous inquiries — you  know  it  wasn't  any  use  their 
getting  next  to  who  you  were  and  then  doping 
out  who  Uncle  Sam  was " 

She  interrupted  herself  to  look  at  him  inquir- 
ingly. 

287 


BLUE  ANCHOR  INN 

"  Sure.  That's  right.  Good  business  ! "  com- 
mented her  husband. 

"  Well,"  she  went  on,  "  when  I  got  to  doing  the 
mysterious  game,  I  think  they  jumped  to  the  con- 
clusion that  I  was  his  Mrs.  Brooke,  and  was  try- 
ing to  rope  him  in.  Anyhow,  that's  the  way 
they  acted.  Well,  I  didn't  mind  a  little  flirta- 
tion with  him  at  first,  because  it  was  some  slow 
down  here  ;  but  when  it  got  too  fervent,  I  had  to 
ice  it  down." 

The  husband  frowned. 

"  Too  fervent  ?  "  he  said. 

"  Oh,  nothing  real.  I  thought  he  was  trying 
to  jolly  me  along  so  as  to  learn  what  we  came  for. 
He  was  some  curious." 

Mr.  Brooke  summoned  together  all  his  mus- 
cular force  and  hoisted  himself  slowly  out  of  his 
chair. 

"Well,  I'm  glad  we  found  him.  He'll  do  us 
good.  I  never  saw  that  jewelry  before,"  he  said 
abruptly,  picking  up  a  couple  of  pins  that  were 
lying  on  her  bureau. 

"  Miss  Grey's,"  she  replied.     "  I  borrow  hers 

sometimes." 

288 


BLUE  ANCHOR  INN 

"  What  good  is  she  to  you  ? "  he  asked. 
"  Does  she  earn  her  way  ?  " 

"  Sure  she  does,"  announced  his  wife,  emphatic- 
ally. "  She's  lived  with  swell  people,  and  she 
knows  the  smart  ideas.  She  posts  me  all  the 
time  on  how  the  real  chosen  few  do  it.  Why, 
when  I  was  in  town  I  was  the  best  dressed 
woman  in  any  of  the  hotels.  Oh,  Miss  Grey's 
been  worth  all  I've  paid  her." 

"  All  right.  Good  advertisement,"  agreed  the 
other.  "  Can  you  trust  her  to  pack  up  every- 
thing to  send  back  on  the  boat  and  close  up 
things  generally  here  ?  " 

"  Certainly." 

"  Then  let's  hike  for  civilization  now.  She  can 
follow  us  to-morrow." 

"  The  sooner  the  quicker,"  said  Marianne,  with 
a  great  sigh  of  relief. 

Meanwhile  the  other  Mr.  Brooke  was  unpack- 
ing his  trunk  again.  His  host  came  into  the 
room  and  planted  himself  comfortably  in  a  chair 
before  him. 

"  Now,  Roger,"  said  he,  "  my  advice  to  you  is 

to  find  out  where  your  confounded  wife  is,  and 

289 


BLUE  ANCHOR  INN 

find  out  quick.  Telegraph  to  the  lawyer  that  got 
you  into  this  mess  and  tell  him  to  wire  her  bank 
for  her  address.  He  knows  where  she  keeps  her 
money.  Or  perhaps  he  knows  what  securities 
she  owns.  There  must  be  some  place  her  divi- 
dends are  sent  if  she's  alive,  or  isn't  a  myth. 
You're  sure  you  did  marry  some  one  ?  "  he  de- 
manded. 

"  Yes,"  replied  the  other,  meekly. 

"  Then,  when  you  find  her  address,  go  and  see 
her.  Find  out  what  she  intends  to  do.  If  she 
says  she  won't  get  a  divorce,  explain  to  her  that 
she  can  go  to  the  dickens.  If  she  says  she  will, 
then  you  can  be  happy  and  stop  bothering  your 
friends." 

Brooke  folded  up  a  pair  of  trousers  and  laid 
them  thoughtfully  in  the  drawer. 

"  No  matter  how  fully  I  explained  to  her,"  he 
said  slowly,  "  that  she  had  my  permission  to  go 
to  the  dickens,  I'm  afraid  it  wouldn't  help  me 
much." 

"  Well,"  replied  his  companion,  lamely,  "  you 
would  at  least  know  about  it." 

The  great  advantage  of  being  thus  informed 
290 


BLUE  ANCHOR  INN 

did  not  appeal  to  the  young  man.  Nevertheless, 
he  wrote  out  the  telegram  as  directed  and  des- 
patched Willy  with  it  in  the  motor  boat  to  the 
mainland. 

At  the  same  time  Willy  took  the  telegram,  he 
took  also  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Brooke  and  Mr.  Still. 
The  entire  population  of  the  island  accumulated 
to  see  them  off,  Captain  John  foremost  among 
them.  He  pushed  forward  to  shake  the  old  man 
by  the  hand. 

"  You  may  not  be  jest  right  'n  the  head,"  he 
said,  tactfully,  "  but  I  will  say  you're  real  good 
comp'ny." 

"  Thank  you,  John,"  said  Mr.  Still.  "  Same  to 
you." 

Still  drew  aside  Brooke — the  wifeless  Brooke. 
He  fished  a  yellow  ball  out  of  his  trousers  pocket. 
When  unfolded  it  proved  to  be  a  twenty  dollar 
bill. 

"  Buy  something  for  Mrs.  Gilpin  from  me,"  he 
whispered. 

Brooke  nodded  and  stepped  forward  to  say 
good-bye  to  Mrs.  Brooke.  She  looked  at  him 

with  a  knowing  smile. 

291 


BLUE  ANCHOR  INN 

"  It  was  a  strange  coincidence,  wasn't  it,  that 
we  should  have  the  same  name  ?  "  she  said. 

"  It  was  an  invention  of  the  devil,"  he  as- 
serted. 


292 


CHAPTER  XXIX 

BUT  when  Roger  Brooke  actually  received  a 
telegram  on  the  following  day  from  Mr. 
Sprague  giving  a  street  and  number  in  Philadel- 
phia as  his  wife's  address,  he  was  stricken  with 
fright  at  the  prospect  before  him.  However, 
there  was  no  excuse  for  delay,  and  he  prepared 
to  make  the  trip  to  Philadelphia  by  the  evening 
train.  No  actor  on  the  occasion  of  his  first  per- 
formance, no  public  man  making  his  maiden 
speech  could  have  been  more  perturbed. 

He  called  on  Dita  Grey,  ostensibly  to  bid  her 
good-bye,  but  also  in  the  hope  that  she  might  be 
arranging  to  leave  by  the  same  train.  He 
might  have  bluntly  asked  her  to  do  so,  but  it  ap- 
peared inadvisable  to  make  a  point  of  it,  under 
the  circumstances.  He  found  her  seated  on  the 
floor  in  the  midst  of  the  disarray  occasioned  by 
the  rounding  up  of  Mrs.  Brooke's  belongings  and 
sending  them  to  the  yawl.  From  her  careless 
and  nonchalant  attitude  and  her  apparent  sur- 

293 


BLUE  ANCHOR  INN 

prise  at  seeing  him,  it  would  not  have  seemed 
that  she  was  expecting  him. 

"  I  am  going  away  to-day,"  she  said,  placidly. 

"So  am  I,"  he  replied.  He  rather  hoped  this 
would  bring  about  a  discussion  of  trains.  But 
conversations  are  very  unmanageable  things. 

"  Are  you  going  to  see  your  wife  ?  "  was  what 
she  asked. 

This  was  rather  blunt.     She  was  often  blunt. 

"  Yes,"  he  replied,  for  want  of  something  bet- 
ter to  say. 

She  picked  up  a  piece  of  paper  and  began  to 
fold  it. 

"  You  don't  often  speak  of  your  wife." 

"No." 

She  looked  up  quickly. 

"Norther?" 

"  I  must  tell  you,"  he  said,  humbly.  "  I  don't 
know  who  my  wife  is." 

She  only  made  little  tracks  in  the  paper  with 
her  thumb  nail. 

"I — I — it's  very  humiliating  to  have  to  tell  it," 
he  went  on — "  but  I  married  her  because  some 

one  gave  me  five  hundred  dollars  to  do  it." 

294 


BLUE  ANCHOR  INN 

He  looked  at  her  to  see  how  she  took  that 
statement.  Her  head  was  averted.  He  was 
thoroughly  miserable. 

"  Don't  you  think  that  was  contemptible?"  he 
demanded. 

When  she  looked  up  her  face  was  wreathed  in 
smiles. 

"  But,"  she  said,  brightly,  "  think  how  happy 
it  made  her." 

He  had  no  reply  to  that.  But  he  was  glad 
she  did  not  despise  him. 

"  What  did  she  look  like?"  demanded  the  girl 
in  a  moment. 

"  I  don't  know.     She  wore  a  veil." 

"  Was  she— fat  ?  " 

"  No." 

"  Was  she  slim — like  I  am  ?  " 

He  looked  at  her. 

"  Yes,  I  should  say — slim — like  you  are." 

"  And  you  haven't  seen  her  since  ?  " 

"  No.     She  went  West — to  get  a  divorce." 

The  girl  looked  up  with  interest,  and  moved 
across  the  floor  till  she  was  close  to  his  knees. 

"  And,"  she  asserted,  "  she  didn't  get  it?" 
295 


BLUE  ANCHOR  INN 

He  shook  his  head.     She  laughed  softly. 

"  Why  do  you  laugh  ?  " 

"  I  don't  blame  her,"  she  said,  and  gave  him  a 
wonderful  glance  from  under  her  long  lashes. 

They  were  interrupted  then  by  the  entrance  of 
Mrs.  Brooke's  colored  retainer,  who  slouched 
across  the  room  and  lifted  a  box  of  china  Dita 
had  been  packing.  She  followed  him  to  the 
door  to  explain  minutely  just  how  it  should  be 
carried  and  where  it  should  be  put  and  what 
should  be  put  on  top  of  it  and  what  should 
not,  and  so  many  other  things  that  it  took  the 
colored  retainer  nearly  five  minutes  to  forget 
them.  Having  thus  attended  to  her  duties,  she 
returned  to  find  out  how  many  things  she  had 
forgotten  to  put  in  the  box.  This  was  discour- 
aging, because  there  were  a  great  many.  But 
finally  she  got  them  all  corralled  and  huddled  in  a 
bunch  where  she  could  keep  an  eye  on  them  and 
see  that  they  did  not  escape  again.  She  went 
to  the  window  and  looked  out  at  the  gray  sea. 

"  I've  been  thinking  about  the  lady,"  she  said, 
with  her  back  to  him.  "  I've  been  thinking  that 

perhaps  I  understand  her." 

296 


BLUE  ANCHOR  INN 

"  Yes,"  he  replied. 

She  hesitated. 

"  This  girl — she  was  an  orphan — or,  at  least, 
there  was  no  near  person  to  look  after  her  ?  " 

He  nodded. 

"  I  think  I  can  understand,"  she  said.  "  I  was 
like  that.  I  do  not  remember  my  father  and 
mother.  I  worked  in  an  office  when  I  was  fif- 
teen. And  I  lived  in  a  boarding-house  and  met 
no  one.  I  never  saw  a  man  of  my  own  age 
whom  I  could  like — or  even  talk  to.  If  she  were 
like  that " 

She  paused  a  moment. 

"  Yes,"  he  said. 

"  Why,"  she  went  on,  "when  the  girl  got  out 
West  it  might  have  occurred  to  her  that  since 
she  was  married  to  a  cleaner  and  finer  and  a 
more  upstanding  man  than  had  ever  before  come 
into  her  life " 

"  How  could  she  have  thought  it  ?  "  he  broke  in. 

"  It's  possible."  She  gazed  attentively  at  the 
whitecaps  rolling  in  over  the  lead  sea.  "  I 
thought  those  things  when  I  first  saw  you." 

He  made  two  steps  and  caught  her  to  him. 
297 


BLUE  ANCHOR  INN 

She  held  him  close,  her  white  arms  about  his 
neck.  Then  she  freed  herself. 

"  You  interrupt  me,"  she  protested. 

He  retired  and  stood  before  the  fireplace. 

"  Go  on." 

She  nervously  crumpled  her  handkerchief  in 
her  hands. 

"  If  she  thought  those  things  about  you  that  I 
have  said,"  she  went  on,  "  she  might  have  de- 
cided to  come  back — out  of  curiosity — to  see 
what  her  husband  was  like." 

"  It  isn't  probable,"  he  asserted. 

She  smiled  a  little. 

"  Were  you  ever  a  woman  ? "  was  her  unan- 
swerable reply. 

The  little  clock  on  the  mantel-shelf  struck 
eleven. 

"  I  must  go,"  he  forced  himself  to  say. 

She  put  her  hands  on  his  shoulders  and  looked 
into  his  face. 

"And  are  you  never  coming  to  see  me 
again  ?  " 

"Not     until "     He    paused.     "Well,     I 

think  you  understand." 

298 


BLUE  ANCHOR  INN 

"  You  mean  when  she  lets  you  go?  " 

He  nodded. 

"  I  wonder,"  he  exclaimed,  "  if  she  ever 
will ! " 

She  shook  her  head.  Keen  surprise  showed 
in  his  face. 

"  Why  ?  "  he  asked. 

Her  reply  was  simple. 

"  I  know  the  woman." 

"You  know  my  wife?  How?  Where?"  he 
cried,  excitedly. 

"  She  came  to  Mrs.  Brooke  for  the  position  I 
have  now." 

"  But  she  has  plenty  of  money,"  he  exclaimed 
quickly. 

"  I  know.  She  told  me.  I  was  in  her  confi- 
dence," Dita  went  on  hurriedly.  "  She  told  me 
that  she  wanted  to  meet  her  husband — you,  that 
is — without  your  being  aware  of  it.  Through 
somebody's  mistake  she  understood  that  these 
Brookes  were  related  to  you.  So  she  thought  if 
she  connected  herself  with  them  she  might  meet 
you." 

He  was  thoughtful. 

299 


BLUE  ANCHOR  INN 

"  That's  pathetic,"  he  said. 

"  Oh,  no.  It's  funny.  If  she  had  only  known 
then  how  wrong — and  yet  how  right — her  guess 
was." 

"  And  she  would  have  had  your  place,"  he 
said,  thoughtfully. 

She  looked  at  him  quizzically.  Then  she 
waited.  Still  his  face  gave  no  sign.  Presently 
she  began  to  laugh. 

She  tried  again. 

"  Would  you  like  to  know  the  name  your 
wife  assumed  in  applying  for  the  place  ?  "  she 
asked. 

"  Why,  yes,"  he  replied,  innocently. 

"  It  was  Grey." 

She  looked — and  the  spark  had  caught 

"  Thunder  !  "  he  said,  dazed. 

And  this  time  when  he  held  her  in  his  arms  he 
knew  she  was  his. 

"  The  ring  ?  "  he  asked,  at  length. 

There  was  a  fine  gold  chain  about  her  neck. 
He  had  seen  it  sometimes  when  she  wore  low-cut 
dresses.  Fastened  to  the  end  of  it  she  showed 
him  the  ring. 

300 


BLUE  ANCHOR  INN 

"  Mrs.  Brooke — the  other  Mrs.  Brooke  " — 
she  laughed,  shyly — "  found  it  on  my  bureau 
once  and  wore  it.  I  was  so  frightened  I  have 
worn  it  on  this  chain  ever  since." 

He  took  it  off  and  put  it  on  her  finger,  where 
it  belonged. 

"  How  about  the  jade  earrings?" 

"Jade  earrings?"  she  answered,  puzzled. 

"  Mrs.  Brooke  has  been  wearing  them.  That's 
what  put  us  on  the  wrong  track." 

"  Has  she?"  she  cried.  "  I  never  thought  of 
that.  She  has  been  wearing  a  good  many  of 
my  trinkets.  I  got  tired  of  them.  I  can't  en- 
dure dangley  things  like  they  are." 

They  did  not  hear  the  little  clock  when  it 
struck  twelve.  Nor  when  it  struck  one.  But  it 
seemed  they  had  scarcely  been  sitting  in  the  chair 
a  minute  when  Ned  Gilpin  burst  in. 

"  Oh,  Roger,"  he  called,  before  he  came  in, 
"  come  on  to  lunch." 

Then  he  entered. 

Of  course  it  was  an  embarrassing  situation 
for  Dita.  But  the  high  color  became  her  im- 
mensely. 

301 


BLUE  ANCHOR  INN 

"  Ned,"  said  Roger,  "  I  present  you  to  my 
wife." 

But,  as  has  been  said  before,  by  this  time  you 
could  not  astonish  Gilpin  with  anything. 


302 


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